No, the judge would not be okay with that.
In the same way, shredding all your incriminating legal documents into a fun jigsaw puzzle for the cops to put together is also illegal.
In the same way, shredding all your incriminating legal documents into a fun jigsaw puzzle for the cops to put together is also illegal.
Same with destroying documents. Having a retention period and destroying documents which have PII and could be used for identity fraud is a good practice. It's not generally illegal to do that either.
Where you get into trouble with the courts is when you have a specific obligation to retain or transfer information and you destroy it instead.
Basically, if you intentionally destroy evidence, either actively passively, you're liable.
It is kind of a broad law and is difficult to prosecute in many cases. The cops have to know that you did the crime and prove that the evidence existed. If you murdered someone and made it look like a suicide, the cops would have to not only suspect you but also know that you left fingerprints and DNA behind that are no longer present.
If a jury of your peers decides that you configured that firmware to protect your data from thieves, then it is not a problem.
But if a jury of your peers doesn't buy your assertion of that, and instead becomes convinced that you applied that (otherwise reasonable and legitimate) feature with the intent to destroy evidence of a crime so that it doesn't reach the court, then setting it up was a felony.