You would not believe how easy and accessible the components are if you decide to make sentients legally, all you need is your license and pretty much the whole system will work like a vending machine for you. Doing it illegaly is SO MUCH harder and in the end the fruits of your investment is far inferior to that achieved by legal means. NOW ISN’T THAT UTOPIC?
Basically there’s only 2 reasons that justify illegal sentient-robo-making: the weapons industry and illegal resource extraction. Basically for building your own nation -.-