People are acting like it's the end of the world. If they solve the issue, then great, and if they don't, then that doesn't matter, because Apple's ideology is "You'll eat it, and you'll like it".
Exactly. Over and over we see this same basic scenario where Apple is implementing some kind of change- or not- and, since "we" don't know if Apple is going to actually do it or not, there's all kinds of extremist "I will not buy if..." or "I'll only buy if...". Yet we know that Apple can hit the stage and tout jettisoning very useful tech and/or pushing barely useful tech and, once it becomes clear where Apple wants to go, the fragmented want/don't-want arguments unify around whatever God has decided to push.
Was it not just a few years ago when there was practically an opinion tsunami against buying the new iPhone if it did NOT come with a Sapphire front... until that fell apart and it become clear that Apple wasn't going that way. Do you think all of those people actually did not buy iPhone?
We've thoroughly ridiculed bigger screen phones when 3.5" and 4" was deemed perfect by God, often with a bunch of "I would never want a phablet..." mixed with "pants with bigger pockets" and "man purses" punches... until Apple embraced bigger-screen phones and then we just fell right in line, driving record sales.
We thoroughly ridiculed NFC as "gimmick" until Apple rolled out Apple Pay at which point we wanted to boycott stores that would not let us pay that way.
Last time it was "I am not buying an iPhone without a headphone jack" when that rumor was still in the iffy stage. Then, as it gained steam that Apple was really going to jettison the headphone jack, the chorus began to rationalize it and when it launched, many fell right in line and paid up... even passionately arguing the merits of the dongle and the desperate need to tolerate some customer experience steps backwards to "force" the future forward.
Apple can roll this out with or without touch ID. It doesn't matter. What's causing these extremes is that we still don't know if Apple is really going to do it or not. As soon as we get very confident either way, the bulk will rally around whatever Apple has chosen to do here. The good arguments of why it seems stupid to let touch ID go will evaporate and some amazing arguments for whatever becomes the replacement option will rise. If Apple jettisoned touch ID and couldn't get facial recognition to work well either such they we all have to go back to entering 4 or 6-digit codes, "we" would quickly rally around that option too: "I didn't want thumbprints on my new edge-to-edge glass anyway" and "I always preferred the passcode myself" and so on. "We" are amazing at rationalizing any decision God makes and then we will work very hard for free to reinforce those rationalizations against any heathens who dare to still find any fault with them.
Why work ourselves up? Most of us are buying whatever Apple rolls out. Look again at the headphone jack. Audio quality dropped if we went with "the future" option, dongle required, bluetooth lag, can't readily share audio with someone else, proprietary wired connection, wireless "the future" sold separately, can't charge & play at the same time without buying something else, and so on. What do we do with that? We spin it as "the future" or needing to be done to force "the future" progress and relentlessly gush praise upon that "the future" while suddenly finding many flaws with how Apple had previously delivered audio to our ears for 15+ years (counting pre-iPhone, iPod years). Apparently using a wired 3.5mm connection in an iDevice was fine for 15 years while Apple endorsed that option, but was then "antiquated" as soon as Apple decided to push it's proprietary or inferior (audio quality) alternatives.
Do we actually think this will be different? Keep it or jettison it? Keep it on the front or move it to the back? What's it really matter? As soon as the final decision becomes practically concrete... as soon as God stands on stage and touts whatever He has decided to do with this issue, we'll shift into "shut up and take my money" mode and readily argue for whatever Apple has chosen as the one and only right way for it to be handled going forward (until Apple opts to switch it to something else and then THAT will be the one and only way forward). And the old way will be increasingly criticized.
Same sentiment, different "innovation" (by addition or subtraction), same ultimate outcome: "Shut up and..."