There is nothing wrong, IMO, with repairability and tinkerability, but I DO believe that doing so beyond a certain -- limited -- point SHOULD be allowed to void the warranty. To do otherwise would require a technician from company A to know everything there is to know about company X, Y, and Z's products, if their parts can be shoehorned in any manner possible into company A's device. Because company A's warranty SAYS that they will make their product WORK if you bring it in for repair under warranty! I mean, that is the basic CONCEPT behind a warranty -- that they will make it work again!
I knew of a fellow when I was in high school who discovered that he could JU-U-U-U-UST fit a small-block Buick V-6 into the engine compartment of a Volkswagen Beetle (radiator mounted in the luggage compartment up front with vents cut into the floorpan and a fan tied into the electrical system for cooling). (His hobby was blowing away Corvettes at stop lights. But I digress...) Should Volkswagen have been responsible for all repairs on that Beetle if it was still under warranty? Hell -- I don't think that they even used the same TOOL sets, so how could they have been expected to service the vehicle? And yet claiming an absolute "right to repair" while keeping the warranty intact would require that.
There has to be a point where repairing/tinkering/modding DOES void the warranty -- the trick will be in determining where that point lies.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
