The thing with Lockdown Mode is that it shifts the trade-off between functionality and security significantly away from functionality. This is an acceptable side-effect of intentionally disabling attack surface that isn't strictly required to have a useful phone. On the other hand, it also makes most social time wasting stuff not work, which is what the masses mostly use their phone for anyway.
This really is a mode designed for those who really desperately need it, and it really is implemented in a strong enough way to be useful (hardware root of trust, no-drive by changes since it requires a reboot with a wiped key bag cache so you must reauthenticate in order to change it). But all of that for consumer-attainable pricing. It doesn't have to be perfect and I'm sure in due time there will be jailbreak-esque attacks. But until then, this is effectively a very high barrier for an attacker that lacks the resources of a nation state (or a smart but bored teenager in a basement these days).
> On the other hand, it also makes most social time wasting stuff not work, which is what the masses mostly use their phone for anyway.
Got any info/links explaining that? Having only read Apple's webpage, it sounds to me like the major problem is slowed down javascript execution? I certainly didn't;t get the impression it's going to shut down all social media apps/websites?
> It doesn't have to be perfect and I'm sure in due time there will be jailbreak-esque attacks
No protection is perfect, and this kind of things are always another layer in a defence-in-depth approach. Just like car locks, the idea is that it becomes enough of a hurdle that someone on a fishing expedition will go look elsewhere. Of course it won't be enough for a determined state actor.
This really is a mode designed for those who really desperately need it, and it really is implemented in a strong enough way to be useful (hardware root of trust, no-drive by changes since it requires a reboot with a wiped key bag cache so you must reauthenticate in order to change it). But all of that for consumer-attainable pricing. It doesn't have to be perfect and I'm sure in due time there will be jailbreak-esque attacks. But until then, this is effectively a very high barrier for an attacker that lacks the resources of a nation state (or a smart but bored teenager in a basement these days).