If this pretending works 100%, then a malware can use that technique to pretend that the phone is secure, to trick you into using your bank app and steal your money anyway.

I also prefer to own my device and be root on it, while installing all the "pretend I'm non-rooted" functionality on it, I did think "this is basically installing a rootkit to tell the OS 'yes, I'm clean!'.". Then my bank (fuck them very much) decided to add a check for a locked bootloader and refused to work without it. I suppose maybe there's a way for the "rootkit" to lie and say "Yes the bootloader is locked!"?

I didn't read all the comments, but it seems to have been lost that it's a fight between freedom (allowing people to "own" their devices) and protecting the general public from harm (being scammed and losing all their money). We also have to give up some freedoms, eg. we are forced to wear helmets or seatbelts as participants of traffic, to ensure a better protection.