I hope the result of all this is the establishment of some laws that will
- Prevent hardware manufactures from also operating as miners, to prevent them from mining with consumer funds/equipment.
- Places controls on prices so that manufactures are not over charging for hardware.
Noble goals. Absolutely despicable means of achieving them. The government has no legitimate business here.
Nobody who does not give a mining equipment manufacturer funds cannot be hurt by that company mining with their manufactured product before shipment.
The proper solution would be for people to be adults, and do some due diligence on a manufacturer before trusting them with funds.
Very large companies have a huge advantage over people who are buying miners on a "retail" level. The customers do not have any power against the manufacturers when they decide to delay shipment even when they promised an earlier shipping date.
The network as a whole suffers when a manufacturer mines with customer equipment as the difficulty is higher as a result (the manufacturer is able to produce more miners with zero risk to themselves). This also reduces overall confidence in bitcoin