Im not a hardware person either, but ex the button physically turns off the canera, and software polls for camera power and can respond

Ah I think I understand what you're suggesting now. This hypothetical switch is both a physical and software disconnect. Some features like the camera would be physically disconnected by the switch and therefore would not be user-configurable but then some other features (for example, GPS) could additionally be software disconnected at the same time.

That seems like a neat idea, but IMO I wouldn't trust the software-controlled half of it, so I'd end up only using the non-configurable physical portion of it.

That makes sense but it's also just a guess. The quote above would be equally applicable to an entirely software option that is toggled with a physical switch rather than an option in a menu.