This. Especially given the safety risk with the batteries ... if they alter the capacity of the battery to make it look like new ... it would result in it being overcharged in the phone.
Yes. The ramifications of giving such "power" to people whom might not be as "responsible" would be quite disastrous.
Also. If you look at the fields that Coconut gives you,
Cycle Count = rewritable cos it needs to update each time
Design Cap = fixed according to battery model
Actual Cap = Read live from the battery status
Battery Life = Actual Cap / Design Cap * 100%
Voltage = Read live
Current Draw = Read live
Serial Number = fixed according to the battery unit
Only one thing makes sense to be a re-writeable field. And that's why CC can also be easily 'hacked'. The rest don't make sense to be re-writeable and hence I feel to "make it software editable" would require them to run the production line to produce a whole new batch of batteries...