Yeah, specifically outside of the US. Many times I've nearly bought one from puri.sm but as they're based in America I'd say there's a very high percentage any of those computers leaving the country will get spyware added in during transit.

And/or having the hardware killswitch modified.

What's so interesting/secure about this hardware? How is this more secure than me installing linux myself?

It has hardware switches for the camera and microphone, and it comes with an unfused CPU, allowing to disable Intel ME.

https://puri.sm/learn/hardware-kill-switches/

https://puri.sm/learn/intel-me/

Hardware kill switches for camera, microphone, and fully open source software down to the firmware and bios. No proprietary blobs at all.