And it's not that great if you don't have root access on your machine: you can't take any extra procedures to secure your appliance running linux. Which is one reason why your linux router should be able to be upgraded with any other feasible linux OS. Unlike TiVo's locking of the hardware to the One Blessed Image. If the manufacturer has root and you don't, they still to some extent own it.

For those who don't know about how to secure linux, they won't be any worse off with root being possible. But those who do will find their appliance much more worthy.