He would have to hide all his assets though AND convince every single customer to lie about making payments for the hardware mods.

ahahah, whenever my neighbours leave the routers unprotected...I usually change all the settings so it's locked and has some name like "dildo" or something. Given that their networks aren't locked, it's 99% guaranteed that the admin details are the same as default.

I don't know. Perhaps the CEOs of these companies who give themselves hundreds of millions of dollars should take a pay cut when something bad happens, instead of laying off employees.

That does not provide a valid point as to why a service that requires millions if not billions a year in maintenance should be free. I'd like to hear one.

Price gouging has nothing to do with maintenance fees. The service providers monopolize regions and inflate the price of their services because they CAN, not because they NEED to.

Again, when things go bad, what does the CEO do? Does he take a pay cut, or does he lay off employees?

That's the answer to the question of whether screwing the company over is immoral or not. They expect us to follow the rules, when they abandon all decency for money? To hell with them.