It reduces the expected value of stealing a phone, which reduces the demand for stolen phones.

I find it hard to believe that Oneplus is spending engineering and business recourses, upsetting a portion of their own userbase, and creating more e-waste because they want to reduce the global demand for stolen phones. They only have like 3% of the total market, they can't realistically move that needle.

I don't understand what business incentives they would have to make "reduce global demand for stolen phones" a goal they want to invest in.