This is the same exact thing Intel and AMD do with product differentiation tiers. Or to put in other words, it's like making the distinction between Quadro and GeForce cards, so clients have a way harder time to mod their cards for a "free upgrade" on features nVidia wants you to pay for. If you want to mine, yeah, we have a product for that which is 10x the price because reasons.
As a regular consumer, I do not like when Companies force product differentiation like this, but it's now commonly accepted by us peasants so there's nothing much to argue... I think? It's on a similar vein to ECC and RAM.
We as consumers have already accepted this, so good riddance.
Cheers!