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I know in iOS 6 betas, if the device's UUID wasn't registered when coming through the whole "Welcome to iPhone" setup thing, it wouldn't let you into the actual OS until it was registered. So theoretically, yes they could of done something to prevent "that" bug.
 
Apples not stupid. Limiting the beta to devs slows the bug fixes down so why fix the loophole.
 
Apples not stupid. Limiting the beta to devs slows the bug fixes down so why fix the loophole.

Presumably for whatever reason they have limited betas to developers in the past. I think they're assuming that a "sweet spot" exists between average consumers and developers, and they're reaching out with iOS 7 to let those users test the beta. The loophole requires some work, but it doesn't require any hacking, and that seems to be the level of technical prowess they're looking for.
 
There was at least one other thread fairly recently discussing this very thing. The general conclusion was that Apple can likely do something about it all if they wanted to, but so far for one reason or another they just haven't cared enough to do it (which if course can change at any point).
 
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