I know you shouldn't look too closely at analogies, but I think there is an interesting inconsistency in the "car dealerships" story:
The tank people offer to send someone to look into the car (rsp. tank) but the buyer rejects them from entering their house.
That's significant, because a car is much less private than a house. In the real world, if my car had an issue, it would be perfectly reasonable to give it into the hands of a mechanic, even if I don't know them personally. (And evidently the reputation of the dealership isn't the deciding factor either, otherwise all the independent repair shops wouldn't exist)
On the other hand, I'd be much more wary to let strangers into my house without supervision, because I have far more private and valuable possessions there than in my car.
So the question is whether computers are more like cars or like houses. I'd argue, they sort of blur the line and have definitely moved closer to "house" in the last decades. But it might have been different back then.
That nitpick over car/house analogies is rapidly breaking down as cars have increased compute and storage themselves, and integrate with other personal electronics, most especially "smart" phones.
Some recent discussion on the border phone search ruling:
The tank people offer to send someone to look into the car (rsp. tank) but the buyer rejects them from entering their house.
That's significant, because a car is much less private than a house. In the real world, if my car had an issue, it would be perfectly reasonable to give it into the hands of a mechanic, even if I don't know them personally. (And evidently the reputation of the dealership isn't the deciding factor either, otherwise all the independent repair shops wouldn't exist)
On the other hand, I'd be much more wary to let strangers into my house without supervision, because I have far more private and valuable possessions there than in my car.
So the question is whether computers are more like cars or like houses. I'd argue, they sort of blur the line and have definitely moved closer to "house" in the last decades. But it might have been different back then.