Can we partially jaibreak our iOS devices for enterprise management? We manage a large number of iOS devices in an enterprise environment and are finding Apple's management utilities lacking. I wonder if there are any options for jailbreaking which do not entail completely opening the system up.

I have no intention of thwarting the code-signing system and having to deal with the complications that raises, or installing unauthorized apps; my thoughts are merely that our administration options would be greater if we were able to access the system partition so we could manage plist files through ssh or another tool.

Is this possible? Or is access to these setting files intrinsically linked to the code-signing system for apps?
Old question, and I'm sure you have answered yourself already, but I'll mention the Apple iOS management tool "Apple Configurator" (didn't find a good link for a tutorial).

It looks like you can lock down a few things.

One interest for "home use": it's the only way to lock down device pairing. Lets say someone wants the info on your iOS device. If it's unlocked for any reason, you just plug it into some device with iTunes, say "Trust" and now you have iTunes-level file system access (which is a lot).

LATE EDIT: Apple has mostly filled the “iTunes hole” in recent iterations of iOS. You need a password to pair the phone now, and iOS 11.4 seems to want a password every 7 days (much like TouchID requires a password after a bit of time).