As the owner of an iPhone, I can legally do whatever I want with it. The restrictions are on developers who sign agreements with Apple. Nothing stops me legally from jailbreaking my own phone.
This link covers 15 years of DMCA abuse, which you say doesn't apply to you.
https://www.eff.org/pages/unintended-consequences-fifteen-ye...
Your ignorance of this terrible law is not immunity of this law. Apple could as easily destroy your device with no recourse, or sue YOU personally for "defeat of technical prevention".
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreakin...
edit: after digging into this, my above statement is false as it no longer needs to be renewed every 3 years
I'm not an Apple employee or direct stockholder. I imagine my 401(k) has some in it, but I don't really know. I'm not claiming they're angels. What I am claiming is that Apple's never told me I'm not allowed to do whatever I want with the things I've bought from them. They might not support me in my ventures, and I'm sure they'd prefer I not, but I'm not aware of any case where Apple tried to legally limit a regular end customer's usage.
Unfortunately we can't deduce the reasons why it wasn't renewed in 2012, but I imagine Apple was doing the best in their power to convince the Librarian to make that decision.
You might want to see to that.
If we're going back to phones, then it would have been illegal to jailbreak for a few months in 2014 after their anti-circumvention exemption expired and before the aforementioned Unlocking Consumer Choice act took effect.
Though jailbreaking is still just one aspect of how DMCA is being used to restrict what you can do with the hardware you've purchased.