I don't *do* Apple.
So I then spent the next 2 hours doing Apple.
Funny how that happens, isn't it?
Yes, but I have to grudgingly admit that the recovery process did actually work exactly as advertised.
I didn't have to root it, install a custom bootloader, download the ROM of the Day, SSH into it and vi some config files and re-compile the kernel.
I'm not sure what the hardware is, but it looks to me like the boot-loader is in hard ROM, and then loads a firmware image out of flash and passes control to the firmware. That means that if the flash firmware image is broken, then the ROM bootloader will still run, and has enough capability to get a new firmware image from iTunes and flash it.
I think that 'Recovery Mode' is exactly that: Boot into the Rom Monitor, and wait for orders.
This is exactly how hardware should be. Cisco stuff is the same; you can always get to the ROM Monitor to start from the ground up.