Aside from this phone locking being complete BS. Wasn’t it possible to pay a third party to unlock it? I did that some years ago though we bought that phone with a huge discount which made it worth it.
I get your frustration but you can’t solve one extreme/problem by another. That just creates different problems. And I believe you’re smart enough to realise what problems that would be. But yea, affordability is definitely a problem that needs to be solved. Getting exploited is never good. Sadly that rich people problem is present in more countries, including China. (not talking about the size of the problem, that is a point of argument of course)
The thing is, that is the short term benefit. The long term effect could be is that we be dependent on the exporting party and they can start charging higher prices. Generally it is not in your favour to be dependent on another party.
And the potential added problem is that once tipping becomes a large part of their salary they will just decrease their salary and say just to get tipped more. I don’t believe any outcome in this is a win for gamers or devs.