I agree, but it's not like they've given up. They're still working on it, and hope to find a way to permanently remove all the software that enables it, and run their own software instead. Whether or not they'll eventually be successful is of course an open question.

The alternative, at least right now, is that Purism doesn't sell any hardware at all, goes out of business, and then there's no one working credibly on this. That would be an even worse failure, IMO.

" We released a petition for, and continue to work with Intel to free it entirely (what Intel is calling a “ME-less” design). "

Do you have a better solution that trying to neutralise it + starting a petition + talking with Intel to remove it ?

If you to want to criticize brands for selling privacy snakeoil, and not making you "the de facto owner of the machine" then we should address your criticism at Apple, not Purism

Can it be enabled by Intel?

A system that has ME installed with a NIC the ME can't access (non-Intel) seems like it makes the ME irrelevant via suffocation.

I'm not sure of the technical details of this board or if the ME can access non-Intel NICs.