It's a common marketing practice

Usually, the base model doesn't use some of the lower-yield portions of the circuit that the
deluxe model uses, and they test boards and jumper only the ones that pass. Of course, then
their yield improves, and they need to take off the jumper to meet demand for the base model.
But there's often a reasonable chance that doing the upgrade on your own will reveal that the
thing won't actually work like that.

In any case, if the company is making a profit selling the deluxe hardware internals at the
base price, and this is able to compete with other manufacturers, having people find out that
they can turn the base model into the deluxe model is probably a net win. Of course, it's
usually not possible to make a profit making deluxe hardware and selling it at base model
prices.