IIRC, the EU took a different view on printers and printer cartridges. Those can no longer be 'DRMed'. I don't see why they would take a different view with coffee machines.
To add to this, manufacturing and ultimately disposing of all these units carries costs that are not entirely reflected in their price. (Limited resources, pollution, etc.)
Designs that deliberately hinder their performance and perhaps artificially shorten their lifespan, may be viewed as against the public good -- especially if and as this becomes standard practice across a range of products.
Society may indeed decide that they are not "free to do as they please", in this respect. Just like your car is required to have adequate passenger restraint systems, and many other conditions that are "imposed".
