Your grandma is not the target of state level spy rings...

The noise made about security is absolutely ridiculous.

She is however the target of pretty much every financial scam on the planet, many of which rely on convincing folks to hand over the keys to their (digital) castle...

Which financial scams involve such attacks, so is there a single scam that this measure would prevent?

I'm not aware of any that this particular sensor would mitigate. I think the idea that security is only for people targeted by nation-states is not a realistic view of the modern world (and, moreover, if we decide that normal people don't need enhanced security measures, it becomes trivial to identify dissidents by the fact that they implement security measures).

State hacking tech leaks to average hackers and scammers over time. Scammers today are using nation state tech from a decade ago.

My dude, an Indian is going to call your Apple-using grandmother and tell her that he works for "the Microsoft" and he needs her to give him all her banking details, or go to a bitcoin ATM, or buy a stack of $500 gift cards, and she's going to do it.

The sensor in her macbook lid does not matter! Get real.

Who are you to decide what matters and what doesn’t?

If you were a journalist reporting on russia or the UAE it would certainly matter.

Not to mention that it’s not that hard to imagine an AI tool being paired with 24/7 surveillance that reports back private information it hears.

It’s also not hard to imagine your average hackers getting their hands on a tool like that after a couple years of governments deploying it.

You're wack. Do you think a locked down laptop lid sensor will stop them from spiking your tea with polonium, or shooting you with a ricin BB, or breaking into your home when you're asleep and jabbing a needle into your neck while holding a pillow over your face, or kidnapping you and breaking your bones with a sledge hammer until they've gotten their rocks off?

This laptop lid threat is fantasy. Get fucking real.

both my grandmothers are dead

What’s the point of this comment?

It answers the question you asked.

Another answer, mine, is that one grandmother flew bombers, jets, spitfires, etc. in WWII and ran a post war international logistics company after that. The other did "stuff" with math.

ie. Both capable of understanding a security posture.

How about your grannies?

You might want to ask well formed questions in future, on a site such as HN the set of all grandmothers is hardly homogeneous.