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My guess is that Nintendo is aware of how easy this mod is, so they resorted to a physical lock on the hardware.
The GBA has a
switch in the cart slot which, when pressed by a GB/GBC game that doesn't have the proper notch, turns the GBA into it's GBC-mode. It seems obvious that if Nintendo were to ever remove the GBC-mode, they'd turn the switch into a "tab", and physically lock the hardware.
Just to note, he's saying that this mod will let you play GB/GBC games, but he's not saying you'll be able to play GBA games after your mod is done. I think you'd need to put a switch somewhere for that.
Looking inside my GBA's cart slot, the switch would be attached to the cart slot right about
here (inside the red circle). That's right close to where this little "wire connection" can turn your DS into a GBC. And the switch in my GBA looks like it's part of a small "module" that could be disconnected. I don't know for sure, because I've never taken apart a GBA (although I took apart a GBC just about a month ago to clean it).
I'm guessing Nintendo simply took the switch out, and replaced it with a plastic tab.
I was saying before that some developers had supposedly made use of the GBA's GBC chip in some games, so cutting it out could cause compatibility problems. It's possible that maybe Nintendo wasn't able to put together a perfect solution that didn't need the GBC's chip, so they just left it in, and they might cut the chip out in a future "design tweak" to save some money some time down the road.
Either way, now I want to wander over to Nintendo of Canada (sometime after I get a DS) and ask them how many beers it will take to get them to accidentally "fix" my DS for me.