Let me ask you - do you have your elderly parents on an android? Then you will know already how totally owned those phones can become.
Half of these developer / root mode required secrets are going to be occasionally working mods and tweaks except with tons of baked in spyware and ads that can no longer easily be removed.
Perhaps some sort of per device profile which requires a paid developer account could work, but I’ve gotten a number of odd calls about YouTube videos involving Kodi from family before, so I’m not sure trusting in the give users freedom front.
However if someone wants to be an idiot, how far do you go to stop them? Apple's approach stops too many great possibilities for knowledgeable users. It should be in the same category as those "will it blend" types. Screw it up? No warranty.
For me there's several things I need it that are impossible because Apple won't allow them, so I have to use Android. But that's comes infected with Google spyware out of the box :(
Great, which is why I think offering a separate SKU to people who want control over their devices would be a wonderful compromise. Your parents can buy the normal locked-down iPhone that's sold in the Apple Store, and I'll buy the special one from the hidden page on Apple's website.
Not in my experience and certainly not evidenced by all the YouTube videos advocating disabling this or that security feature for questionable gain, including ones with scary text and/or strange key combinations.