But that's still the wrong question. The whole INTENTION of the marketed "magic boxes", as discussed in these articles, is to enable these illegal streams.

But it's not a "Kodi" box, it's cheap hardware that runs an open source operating system, which in turns runs an open source media player, which in turn runs custom modifications that aren't in the control of any of the former "supporting parties". Android and the SOC-maker are just as much to blame in this scenario as Kodi (for enabling Kodi to run and do it's thing, don't you think?), but as the last link in the chain, Kodi is the name that pops up when it boots, so it gets the bad rap.

But if Kodi wasn't available, or somehow locked down their plug-in architecture to only "known" developers (is that in the spirit of open source?), those guys would just hack some front end onto VLC or one of many other open source media players that can do similar things as Kodi.

I myself have 4 "Kodi boxes" - some based on Intel NUC systems, and others based on "hacked" Chromeboxes, all running LibreElec. So, good Intel hardware. They contain nothing but my own personal ripped library and other legal streaming sources. I have participated in the development of Kodi (mostly as an alpha tester and annoying hard ass on making sure things work correctly in terms of pristine color space accuracy and other playback glitches). The official forums are very strict on not supporting anyone running illegal addons (by requiring full logs posted for any tech support, which detail all running plugins).

Anyways: I had thought that XBMC had changed their name to Kodi to allow legal protection of that name from these kinds of abusers. Doesn't seem to have helped.