This is extremely unlikely. Dealing with not only outrage from people whose consoles were slowed down, but also heat from NVIDIA (a company notorious for wanting absolute control over their chips) would not be worth it at all for some better launch reviews.
Probably early production quality issues rearing their head, likely from poor thermal paste application. These units will probably get replaced under warranty soon. If we continue seeing these issues on newer produced consoles in a few months from now though, this is a problem.
Can't wait for Mario Party Jamboree's Switch 2 version. Being able to use GameShare with my friends' Switch 1s on the train or something is going to be amazing, compared to all huddling around one screen.
As far as I am aware, Wii, Wii U, DSi, and 3DS all had the warning about removal of "unauthorised technical modifications", alongside on the back of boxed games (probably referring to things like the Wii including new IOSes on the disc that could overwrite any cIOS on the system). A hardware lock down attempt would make sense given their previous history, as their attempts to stop any software modification before were very clumsy at best (never forget the cat and mouse race that was region unlocking Korean Wiis). Still, I'm not sure if this dock issue in particular is part of an anti-piracy drive. There's not a lot I can think of that anyone trying to crack the system open can do through the regular dock's signals (DisplayPort, USB, so on, that are already mostly exposed, with DP going through a HDMI conversion chip). However, this could be incorrect. If Nintendo have special docks out there for service centres that could do things like flash and dump firmware or make factory-level changes to the system (board serial number, for example) it could explain attempts at locking down the dock, and why they've gone to so much effort to encrypt the signals. The only way we can really know is for the Switch 2 to get modded fully and the system is explored in depth, and considering that Mariko (a.k.a. red box) Switch 1 was a tough nut to crack already (you needed a mod chip) I don't think it'll happen any time soon.
Perhaps this could be the case, especially due to the far higher heat in the Switch 2 docked profile compared to Switch 1. If so though, I do hope there is a third party dock certification program, as I really want a proper DisplayPort Switch 2 dock.
I do wonder why they decide to do this. Replacement Nintendo docks probably aren't a big money maker. Maybe they did HDCP (HDMI copy protection for movies and such, used for YouTube and such when they finally get it working) on dock side for Switch 2 so this is their attempt to stop people getting the video feed in between? Just speculation though, and I might be very wrong.
No AC8 announcement at Summer Showcase. People are going crazy.
Update: it's so over
To be fair, I'm not sure there is any era with a lot of reliable sports cars, except for maybe the Honda/Acura NSX. To this day, if I say "BMW S85 V10 rod bearing failure" I would probably bring back some bad memories for some people even though it's been nearly 20 years at this point.
Do you think something might be up somewhere else in the engine? My family have had VWs (mostly TDIs) a while and they usually only need a water pump at about 80 or 90k miles. Either that, or you got unlucky like our TSI Polo that needed one at 20k (although nothing else in the 30k+ since).
Not really in my experience. Modern car electrics, as complex as they are, have been way more reliable than the nightmares in older vehicles I have dealt with. Engines too are a lot more predictable nowadays, and won't have the random weird quirks older engines do. They obviously develop faults too, but they are usually easier to deal with rather than strange faults on older vehicles. However, I do think serviceability has sometimes taken a step back, as there's a concerning number of cars that need you to take out the engine for certain servicing tasks that you are expected to do over the life of the car.
AC5 Mission 17 spoilers
An overclock definitely would help performance, even some high end PCs can struggle to run Cyberpunk at an appropriate resolution. However, I do not think Nintendo (or any console manufacturer) would take the risk of a factory overclock, especially considering they are probably using lower bin chips to reduce production costs.