Are newer baofengs locked down? I thought you can still just hold down 3 buttons while power cycling the radio to unlock TX from 400 to 520 MHz.

Regardless, the Quansheng UV-K5 is largely supplanting the Baofeng as the go-to entry level HT, the 3rd party firmware for that radio is pretty impressive.

I haven’t bought a UV-5R since 2024. That one is as unlockable with a trivial sequence of inputs.

Are modern varieties truly locked or just “locked ;)” ?

Almost all "real" ham radios can be unlocked anyway, and have much better RF performance.