Games consoles aim to prevent piracy/cheat modchips, even though the device owner has physical access and legal ownership. The levels Microsoft had to go to to prevent such attacks are something to behold.
a sufficiently motivated attacker would collect hardware, parts, and specs, then build thier own hardware platform with an open architecture.
The reward has to be on par with the effort required, and i dont think the reward is there for most people that have the skill to reverse the hardware.