For real, this just further cemented me not wanting to buy any new Intel devices.

Intel never deserved trust. They rigged the game by cheating on benchmark tests and deserve the karma they are currently enjoying.

I guess the average consumer would not be very aware of Intel being so shitty, but now everyone has a reason to be wary of them.

Their biggest problem is that people don't want to buy their stuff because it's bad, they can worry about their backdoory image later

There's literally Intel Management Engine or how is it called.

And they are literally an American corporation that has always benefited from American governments pressuring competitors from other countries, and that was important for MIC since 70s.

So that kind of trust was a clear no since long before I was born.

Intel is a us corporate they do as the US spooks tell them to do.

That's national security laws.

Yeah... no one who this matters to thought that anyway. Either you get Chinese or US backdoors in your hardware. This has always been true. Theoretically Intel could make some backdoorless chips for government use though, but we won't have access to that.