Hardware

Eh, they’re definitely making it harder to acquire, which makes it more expensive.

its slows them down , since they cant buy up in bulk by buying up pallets and pallets of cards , and have to buy through black market where cards likely pass by several hands like a faucet. Getting cards into China via Vietnam and Thailand are going to make serious coin to those resellers that buy them and import them illegally. They have over 400k kilometers of rivers and lakes that facilitate moving goods invisibly super easy not counting ocean.