Can the hardware really be damaged by using it without an antenna? I would not have expected that at all.
The Wikipedia article on Standing Wave Ratios [1] has more on this topic.
I think I've seen this once in a documentary where this blew up a whole ship and then many others, too. I think it was called Independence Day or sth. like that.
But are there any on-chip silicon amplifiers which can be damaged transmitting into a short or open circuit? Logic to detect that case and power off is trivial and should make the manufacturing process easier too (for one thing, rework of a dry solder joint on an antenna no longer requires the SoC to be replaced).