Realistically how many people are going to bother reflashing their devices? This case is exceptional because it was EOLed so early, but for the typical phone that reaches EOL in 2 years I doubt more than 1% of people are going to make use of this ability.
It's a chicken and egg problem. There isn't much firmware being developed for these devices because there is no easy path for users to install them.
If installing alternative/third-party firmware becomes easy and normalized, there will also be more options to choose from, because it will actually become worthwhile for people/companies to develop said firmware.
I think if the process was made easy, it would save quite a bit more than 1% of these devices from the landfill, assuming you have enough power users to build a community. Plenty of people flash their chromebooks to MrChromebox UEFI to give them a new life, because it's easy enough for mere mortals, and because Google doesn't lock them down.
I believe if given the tools, people would gladly donate their time to make something fun with it. Heck, that's what I do in my spare time. But it's impossible if everything is completely locked down, as if a music streaming box contains nuclear launch codes that must be protected at all costs.
If you have an easy way to flash any phone and plenty of firmware available, it makes sense to turn flashing into a business. Buy used phones off people who don't need them any more, reflash them with a newer and debloated Android, and then sell them off for more than you got them for.
This would very quickly lead to abuses though. If PC OEMs are bad, imagine what a small mom-and-pop shop, subject to a lot less scrutiny and having much less respect for the law could do.
>You are saying you can reduce e waste by whole integer percent with a simple bit of legislation?
Well no, because not all e-waste are devices that you can conceivably reflash. For instance a monitor equals at least 10 phones in terms of e-waste volume, but I doubt legislation like this is going to make a dent in monitor e-waste. The proposal only realistically makes a difference for computing devices with short EOL periods and locked bootloaders, so basically phones and tablets.
