If they can make it not work with 3rd party chips, they can make it have a internal tamper code instead. If the Chinese sellers can somehow remove the internal tamper code then they'd also be able to bypass the current lock, which they seem they can't.
This is pretty clearly just them trying to block resellers that mod their boards as that removes price pressure from them. It's end user hostile, full stop.
(To be clear, I don't know either way; I'm just assuming that this was contemplated at the time because it's easier)