Unfortunately, that argument is a bit of a red herring as when was the last time your ISP subsidized 50-100% of the purchase cost of your PC so that you could connect to their service? Just as with the PC you bought yourself can connect to the ISP without any specialized crap-ware or crippling, so can too an unlocked, unsubsized phone connect. It's when the provider is ponying up a subsidy that they insist on doing things "their" way. Which is unfortunate, but that's the reality of the situation.