> So, maybe this project is betting on our lives transforming into everyone paying more for their hardware, and everyone using a lot more small/local/boutique type stuff created by small hardware teams. This doesn't really jive with the way technology products are currently marketed, hardened, and distributed, so I'm operating on the assumption that change doesn't happen anytime soon.

So, didn't and won't. At least not mass-market. Maybe very specialized, low unit volume kind of applications.