it's especially fun when you do it yourself, I advise toying around with https://crackmes.one. with time and practice, everything becomes open-source because you can read assembly XD
Not legally, which is the issue. I can "open source" Windows 11 and rip out some of the shittiness, but Microsoft is gonna take issue. If it were MIT licensed that would be a different story, but there isn't enough money for lawyers in the world where it's not.
Reverse engineering is legal in the US. You just can't disseminate the results if it runs afoul of copyright law or patents.
who said that you still technically cannot disseminate the results? bulletproof hosting and private communications still exist. if law is being used to harm the consumer, the consumer in question has full moral right to speak out against it, and taking ownership of your hardware (like OP tells they did) is one of the best ways
I believe you are responding to somebody commenting on the legal restrictions rather than the technical ones. It appears that you may have hallucinated the word "technical" in your response.