It's "worse"? I did a quick google if it was illegal to bypass a TPM and found this vague line: "If you bypass hardware-level TPM encryption to gain unauthorized access to a computer system you do not own"

I bet that is a part of the licensing gotchas in that you don't actually own the device, even though you paid for it?

I dunno. That sounds like some legit legal bullshit to me. Contract law needs burned to the ground and rebuilt so that it protects more than one entity.