[new_here]

Am not money conscious in that regard. Own a full suite of Apple products and have no issue paying the premium for them.

The issue is with the intentional misleading of people to think their device is slowing down when they just need a battery replacement. At Apple’s scale it’s significant and dishonest towards its customers.

[ActorNightly]

Let me explain it a different way.

When you buy a Porsche, you are not paying an inflated price because you are getting performance. You are paying an inflated price because of the economies surrounding the car - Porsche makes and sells a lower number of cars, so it needs to have a higher profit margin per car, however to justify that cost it needs something else, which is namely the badge (since nobody really uses the performance on those cars on a daily bases to get to work faster).

Fundamentally though, because people who buy these cars aren't buying them for robustness, Porsche sees no reason to invest in making things reliable, since that would cut into their profit margins, and since there aren't really significant complaints about reliability, they don't have issues, and in turn can sell parts at a premium because it is accepted that if you are rich enough to afford a Porsche, you are rich enough to pay a premium for upkeep.

Apple is exactly the same way with electronics. You get slightly more spec wise (if even TBH), and pay a inflated price because of the branding. And once you buy into the Apple ecosystem, you play by their rules, which means that you replace your device with a new one if you want to have the best performance.

Of course its not optimal, and for that reason people who are value-conscious don't buy Apple products or Porsche cars.