Yeah but lots of phones you can't get ROMs for from a reputable source, and I sure as heck don't have the know how or time to build one, even if possible, which a lot of times is not due to locking down bootloaders, drivers, etc.
When you buy a Windows PC, the first thing a lot of tech people will do is format it and put on a clean install of Windows without all of the OEM crapware, or in these days install Linux if grandma is just using email and Facebook anyway.
If you try to do that on your Android device, your bank app is broken, most importantly not because of anything the alternate OS is doing wrong, which causes the vast majority of people to not want to do it even if it means suffering the OEM crapware, with no way for the alternative OS to fix it. And that in turn allows the OEMs to get away with locked bootloaders etc., because then they're not losing sales to a competitor that lets you remove the crapware when nobody can do it either way.
But I still haven't contacted the support to ask them to verify phones in another way.
Anyone who does that sort of crap deserves at least that tiny bit of punishment for it.
Naming it publicly would allow those who have a Google-blessed Android device to rate it though.
There can be people messing with the system, and limiting the OSes that can access your network looks like low hanging fruit. Just like Riot (League of Legends) banned Linux users to "solve" botters. But like with botters, there are better alternatives that don't exclude legitimate users.
I feel like we (that is anyone nerdy enough to post on HN) have been far too patient with people who are choosing to wage a war on general-purpose computing, and it's past time to push back harder.
It's crazy how locked down the ecosystem is.
[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/Magisk/comments/1lxbdpw/tutorial_ge...