The concern about individual ownership of general purpose computing is of concern to a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percentage of people. In the USA, at least, even more basic issues that should matter to a large portion of the population don't because they're distracted by "culture wars" and "wedge issues".

Money is speech, and speech builds political power. Industry lobbies have vastly more money than the minuscule number of people to whom this matters.

On top of that, the market doesn't want general purpose computers. The market wants TikTok terminals and selfie cams. The market wants "content consumption", "AI slop", and "influencers".

If there's no market for what I want it doesn't matter if it's legislated out of existence or not. Nobody will build it if nobody will buy it.

Then there's the apologists for big tech who cry "But they're not computers, they're phones!" when the fact is brought up that we're all carrying general purpose supercomputers bristling with sensors and radios in our pockets but we're not allowed to own them or use them for what we want. (Cue sob stories about clearing malware from oldsters' computers in 3... 2... 1...)

Technologists (who I'd argue should want general purpose computing in the hands of the masses) can't make any money re-architecting the OS and application metaphors and paradigms that give rise to the malware-laden cesspools of end users PCs so they just direct their efforts to working at big tech building the walled-garden prisons that we're all going to be forced into.

It's hard not to feel like I have to accept this fate.