System76s’ (at least used to) use rebranded Clevo laptops with their own flashed motherboard firmware. I’ve replaced parts on mine with direct Clevo spare parts.

I know there have long been workarounds but I don’t know if there’s ever been a “crack” per se.

Ah, where’s the repository of their reviews?

Read the product reviews…

better renew that subscription to Consumer Reports to make sure the reviews aren’t fake.

I never completely stopped collecting conventional DVDs specifically because of the Blu-Ray DRM scheme and it’s need for an external decryption key. The few blu-rays I have are either from DVD+Blu-Ray bundles or because standard DVD wasn’t an option.