I'd like to ask a question how is this...
... materially, not to mention ethically, different than warez s/w cracks? If this was warez s/w crack related, would you condone it's posting on TTF?
Well lets see, you own the phone, it is an actual physical piece of property meaning you can do what you want to it. Now you cannot redistribute the firmware as that would be piracy but making changes to the firmware through reverse engineering is completely legal. With software you are actually getting a license to use not ownership.