Actually, if you're a surveillance capitalist, it's a very clever move to focus on a markets with users that can't afford to vote with their wallet.
Before any falsehoods get mentioned, in the poorest countries you'd better believe there's always a guy ready to make a micro business reflashing things for the technologically unskilled for pennies. If the demand exists.
I'd say: less cynically, this whole thing paints a new target for the Chinese to chase with cut throat prices even lower. Meanwhile, as pragmatists, these Chinese manufacturers aren't categorically hesitant to make reflashing hard. Because they're not best friends with US companies to begin with to care.