[LG V30 Questions & Answers] ChazzMatt:
It's just carrier-branded phones that are losing root. Motorola started that three years ago for some carriers like Verizon, but "international" carriers were exempt as well as "factory direct" phones. Those were place on official bootloader unlock list.

LG now has that in place too, but for all carriers. Only the "open market" models are exempt and placed on the LG Bootloader Unlock List, but they delay releasing those by a couple of months to allow the carriers to fleece their customers first.

Samsung gets around it by releasing Exynos chipset versions of their phones outside North America -- with easy bootloader unlock, but yet they still have U.S. carrier HSPA/LTE bands. (That's not by accident.) For Exynos Samsung, you're only out of luck if you use Verizon and Sprint. (Friends don't let friends use Sprint anyway.)

There are also non-carrier phones sold in the U.S. but I will ONLY buy true top tier spec phones, and OnePlus does not qualify.

No 1440p

No IP rating

No Qi wireless charging

Since late 2014, 1440p is a requisite spec to be a true flagship, and in 2017 high IP ratings are included with all major OEMs. I won't buy a phone without Qi wireless charging, as I've had it on all my phones since 2013. I'm just not going to compromise on specs, or as OnePlus ironically says "never settle" --which they have done on all their phones. Remember the phone they shipped without NFC?

ZTE is making a hybrid Pixel 2 XL/LG V30 type phone which I am curious about. (Not yet officially announced.) The 2016 ZTE Axon 7 had unlocked bootloader on request, and had same or better specs than the Pixel XL (except for the camera). 2016 ZTE Axon 7 even had the exact same 1440p OLED display as the Pixel XL -- MONTHS before the Pixel XL was released. Stereo speakers, award winning quad DAC, 5.5" 1440p display, 64GB storage with 4GB RAM + microSD card. The only reason I didn't buy that 2016 phone was lack of Qi wireless charging; otherwise all the other specs were on my wish list.

ZTE is in the process of making a "zero-bezel" follow-up and if they keep the same spec philosophy, it will basically be a combo of the LG V30 + Pixel 2 XL. They are reportedly skipping the "8" number and going to "9". The ZTE Axon 7 even worked on Verizon with Verizon VoLTE, with both stock Nougat and custom LOS Nougat ROMs. ZTE did SOMETHING to make VoLTE work on Verizon with the Nougat release. For a non-Verizon phone that was impressive.

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It just seemed you were saying, "I have chocolate cake right now -- but I really miss carrot cake. So, my next dessert will be... vanilla ice cream." [emoji14]

If you really like your LG phone, but miss root, your next phone should be an LG phone you can root!

For North American users, both open market LG phones and Exynos Samsung Galaxy phones will require payment in full. So, there's no difference there. Well, Samsung does make the Exynos models available much sooner than the LG "open market" versions. There's no two months delay.

But "payment in full" is now the "membership fee" into the root club for almost any phone. I had to do that with my Motorola XT1225 back in 2014, for both me and my wife. Ordered two from other countries, at $700 each.

U.S. carriers are demanding the lockdown and OEMs are obliging. LG, Samsung, and Motorola have phones that can bypass that but you have to pay in full. There are non-carrier OEMs like ZTE that also bypass that, but you have to be careful of companies like OnePlus that are more full of hype than actual specs.

The point is, if users like root they will have to stop buying from U.S. carriers. I've not bought a phone from a carrier store in YEARS. Even T-Mobile is no longer dev-friendly.

I will never own a phone I cannot root on Day 1. So, I will always have root.