What are you talking about? It's the same thing. The $36 was added to the bill then it was removed.
A fee-waiver and getting credit are two different things. While they may seem the same, the final end result is different. Like you said, if it was added to the bill then by definition the fee wasn't waived.
The problem with just getting credit is that you are still charged the $36, and thus your taxes and fees also increase. And they increase at a seemingly arbitrary rate even after a $36-charge-then-$36-credit.
If your bill is the same every single month and you look at the taxes and fees line by line (there's about a dozen of them), some will increase by a couple of cents. Some will be double. And in one instance, a fee that was always $0.38 for me went above $2.00. The total difference was about $11, which is 10% of my total bill. Even though I technically got credit for a $36 charge, I'd still had to pay a 10% higher bill. This would not happen with a fee waiver.
I've always gotten the fees waived in the past, but I knew there was a policy change and wanted to check if people were having success. If they were waiving the fee I could try to do this
before purchasing the next iPhone, so there are no surprises on the following bill. But I see they are sticking to the policy change so I won't waste my time calling/chatting with AT&T trying to get a fee waived beforehand. I will wait until after the next phone comes out and discuss a credit.