ASUS is apparently killing the ability to root present and future Zenfones

They're actually really good

I got an Asus Zenfone Max Pro M2 in 2020 and it already gave up last year by becoming very slow and randomly rebooting from time to time. Updates also seem to have stopped but the phone was released in 2018 so the obsolescence doesn't surprise me, but what's infuriating is that right now it's pretty much garbage. I'm now using it only for work 2FA as the process to add my new Pixel phone to my employer's 2FA is pretty bureaucratic and takes a whole month (and during that month you have to give up working from home since they have to disable 2FA on your old phone).

Pegatron makes a lot of things.

I've loved their ROG Phones. I had their ROG 2, and now their ROG 6. Complete overkill for most people, but I'm definitely an Android "Power User".

Their Zenfones have also gotten a good reputation as decent mid-range devices that kick some recent trends, like keeping the phones on the smaller side and keeping the headphone jack.

This is still a rumor, let's wait for things to settle down a bit before we get too angry right now.

Again, for a company as big as Asus/Pegatron, major decisions like this travel slowly and chaotically down the pipeline. We'll have to wait for the Zenfone 10 release to say for sure.