"Manufacturers may intentionally damage a portion of their goods ... "[0]
The intel chip example has already been mentioned in comments. The general idea of "Damaged Goods" (and how this can benefit consumers) appears here (at Preston McAfee's site).
> but I feel like this is just a password you can't change
Not quite. IBM has (had?) a research program on "cancelable" biometrics. I do not recall perfectly, but I think they were tweaking the encoded biometric sensor data before committing it to DBs. If there is a leak, one can redo it with a new tweak (like a new salt or nonce).
This is incorrect. Not all ETFs. These funds are sector focused (vehicles). A regular S&P500 ETF will not hold NKLA.