I was thinking about that as I was writing what I wrote - haha! I just think that Apple may be sued if it intentionally "bricks" peoples' phones. By "brick", I mean that the phone will not function, and it won't be possible to download the firmware from Apple to restore the phone to a stock state. Apple may try to do its best so that the phone cannot be jailbroken at some point.
With respect to the missing smartphone features, it may be that Steve Jobs wanted the iPhone to be a simple phone that would not be bogged down with the full feature set of smartphones. The first gen phone didn't even have 3G or GPS. He tried to have people embrace web apps, but that didn't work. The jailbreaking community developers created a lot of native apps, and it was evident that native apps are more popular (because they tend to run faster and can be used even if there is no signal or a weak signal). But users began to demand more features, essentially making the phone a more complex device.
He may be holding out on the video recorder and a better camera app (with filters, digital zoom, etc.) until the phone can support a better camera in a device of the same size. Also, he may be waiting for better batteries that will last longer in order to place a better camera, a video recorder, and a better camera app. Turn by turn GPS will also drain the battery like crazy, but it seems like that will happen before a next gen phone comes out. Steve Jobs made it clear when he said that the first gen phone came out without 3G that it was necessary to wait until a battery would last longer with a 3G antenna. So a battery with a longer life may be essential before Apple provides some of these features. Battery drain is an issue with the use of flash in MobileSafari as well. Of course, if Apple provided a replaceable battery, none of this would be an issue!
I can't imagine why Steve Jobs is holding off on MMS and c/p at this point, but he seems to be sticking to his guns on those two points! This would be more useful than street view in my opinion. Although I am in favor of any new feature!!
Again, maybe he is waiting to introduce some of these features in a next gen iPhone with a better battery life. The truth of the matter is that many people, including myself, are ticked off about the omission of these basic smartphone features! The wait is truly frustrating!
And you don't think he's ticking off tons of people by leaving out MMS, video recorder, c/p, and turn by turn GPS? That's not stopping him from keeping these capabilities off the iPhone.