Letters to the Editor
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This should have been expected...
I think people may not understand just how deep the hacks had to go in order to successfully unlock the iPhone from the AT&T network. Recall that the unlocking took a relative eternity for the iPhone compared to other phones, which means Apple tried to bury things really deep, and that the hackers had to do some serious slash and burn to get around Apple's code.
Although it's certainly possible for Apple to have "bricked" the iPhone intentionally, I strongly suspect they didn't, because it's just too much work. I think the real reason for the warning is that Apple is acutely aware just how hacked the unlocked phones are, and are trying to warn people not to try to bring in phones that have voided their warranty (yes, people should know better, but I'm sure there will be a lot of folks who will try anyway and get mad when they can't get the updated software).
There's nothing illegal about this, by the way. From what we know so far, Apple isn't changing unlocked phones over the air or anything like that - any possible incompatibility is going to be tied into the software upgrade that of course everyone is going to want. Apple isn't under any obligation to provide free upgrades to unlocked iPhone - if you've unlocked it then the safest course of action is to simply not upgrade until you can verify that the unlock hacks still work, and wait until the hackers unlock it again.