I'm just a backer like anyone else, and would love for this project to be more open regarding hardware and people able to make their own Pines, as happens with Arduinos. I think part of it is the Pine folks worrying at having to offer support for these homemade boards, but as has been said, this responsibility would not be on their heads.
The problem I think (and I could be wrong) is Allwinner. For good or ill, Pine64 have partnered with a company who are very closed in their approach to people using their products. If Allwinner don't want to reveal the details of their SoC, so be it. That isn't exactly Pine64's fault. But, as with the Raspberry Pi, they (Pine64) could make as much of the hardware as possible open.
But you do run into the issue of having access to everything then except the chip that drives the heart of the beast. Is that really more useful than having no access at all?
The problem I think (and I could be wrong) is Allwinner. For good or ill, Pine64 have partnered with a company who are very closed in their approach to people using their products. If Allwinner don't want to reveal the details of their SoC, so be it. That isn't exactly Pine64's fault. But, as with the Raspberry Pi, they (Pine64) could make as much of the hardware as possible open.
But you do run into the issue of having access to everything then except the chip that drives the heart of the beast. Is that really more useful than having no access at all?