‘To actually own the hardware we buy’ doesn’t really mean anything without further explanation. We do actually own the hardware we buy even if we don’t know how to reprogram it.
My car has a digital speedometer that reads in kph only. I want it to read mph, but there is no software update available to do this, and nobody seems to know how to hack it. I still own the car.
Everything produced by a big company works in the interests of the big company. There are no exceptions to this, ever, unless the company is simply failing.
Any time we buy something, we do so because our interests are sufficiently aligned with the interests of those who made the product. The alignment is always partial.
If you don’t want hardware that works in the interest of a big company. The only way to achieve that is not to get it from a big company. The same is true for software.
