You could say that this was to be expected. Why would Verizon allow a device with an unlockable bootloader on their network after all these years of dictatorial behavior in regards to locking down their devices. The last time we saw an unlockable bootloader on the network was the Galaxy Nexus...
In case you missed it all US variants of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have locked bootloaders. This is a huge blow for those of us with high hopes of running AOSP on a Snapdragon processor. It was several years ago that CyanogenMod announced that they would not officially support phones with Exynos...
Having an unlocked bootloader means that you have full control of your phone's software. You can flash mods, custom roms, and root your device with ease if your bootloader is unlocked. So far Xiaomi phones have has unlocked bootloaders. This has led to some devices showing up on customer's doors...