No that is the point. You are trying to justify bricking the end users equipment, claiming that they know what they are doing. It is obvious that they don't know what is going on, it is just a gadget they bought off amazon. Soft bricking the device is shady and underhanded. What they should have done was pop up a message stating the device is counterfeit and asked for the user to inform them of where they got the device so FTDI could take action.
I know I would be glad to rat out the counterfeiters because I don't want counterfeit chips in my gadgets. If they were to ask me I would give them the information on where I got the gadget so FTDI could either help the manufacturer fix their supply chain, or follow it to the actual culprit.
Punishing the end user is passive aggressive. They know their gadget is broken, but not why it is broken. Frankly I hope they become the subject of a class action. They have no right to destroy hardware.