I do agree, but I am glad the option exists, in contrast with competing readers on the market. And I am very glad that it is an option that requires zero talking to activation servers or other infra.

The way they implemented this means that these Kobos can always avoid being e-waste even if Kobo disappears. Assuming they don't maliciously remove it, that is, but seeing as it was added fairly recently and is fairly obscure, I doubt they would bother doing so for current and past devices.

> And so far DIY e-reader do not seem great.

Being generous and expanding DIY to mean any "open" or "modifiable" reader, this ecosystem has actually be rapidly improving in quality and selection recently. A few new devices were announced recently, and I'm particularly interested in the new M5Stack offering since it has a frontlight and LoRA.

https://liliputing.com/lilbits-more-phone-sized-e-ink-gadget...

I wish I could recommend any Android-based readers, but the software ecosystem for them is quite poor. I would immediately purchase one if they offered a verifiably-clean AOSP or LineageOS option.