They have the function so they can ransomware televisions. Want to use the TV? Just send them a Satoshi or two every year and they won't shut down your TV remotely. The fact they can use it in case of theft is a side-benefit.

And rooting is pointless on its own. They're going after it as if it were a personal attack. So you need to full-on pirate instead. Phone bricks itself if rooted? Run a pirate OS that emulates the checks and "phones home" to your laptop instead of its central processor in order to bypass the ROM-built-in checks. We have a right to root our phones, won in court, but that won't stop companies from treating it as worse than murder, it's an ever-escalating battle.