> It's not like there are going to be millions of different people causing interference
Why not? When someone has trouble with wifi in their apartment because there are a zillion other wifi networks in their neighborhood, and they Google for "boost my wifi signal" or similar they are going to get several articles that suggest installing open source firmware so they can tweak performance parameters that they cannot with the stock firmware, including tweaking transmit power.
Then the FCC can go to the people making that firmware and demand that they remove the option that allows violating FCC regulations or face a large fine. The developers presumably didn't intend to violate FCC regulations, so they comply, and then that stops happening.
It's not like there are millions of different people making open source router firmware. There are a small handful.
Not to someone that wants to turn up their signal power it isn't, they don't consider themselves to be causing problems, they just don't care so much about other people.
You can't really place restrictions like this in FOSS software. It doesn't work.
Why not? When someone has trouble with wifi in their apartment because there are a zillion other wifi networks in their neighborhood, and they Google for "boost my wifi signal" or similar they are going to get several articles that suggest installing open source firmware so they can tweak performance parameters that they cannot with the stock firmware, including tweaking transmit power.