Apple deserves this but not because they used low quality parts. Do you know where they got there parts? Have they changed battery companies? Do they get their batteries from different companies than other phone manufacturers like Samsung?
Apple deserves the outrage to be sure but not for the parts they used. I believe this occurred because of Apple design choices along with the increasing tech that went into phones, that required more power draw from their batteries, their steadfastness on a thin phone, and their hubris about their ability to create magic. One last factor might be that high paid Apple employees replace their phone every year so they don't plan for three or more years of use from a phone. Where Apple is not responsible is battery technology. Batteries degrade over time. Everyone agrees with that. Apple made design decisions to keep the phone slim and have less battery overhead. As the battery cycles go up battery performance goes down. Not just for Apple phones but for all phones.
Where the outrage should be placed is Apple's plan to deal with the sudden shutdown issue that started to occur. I have no doubt Apple wanted to help customers by making sure their phone stopped shutting down all of a sudden. Why, because if customers get upset with their phone then they will buy a different phone. Apple wants to keep their customers happy so they keep buying iPhones. Where Apple was wrong and where they deserve the outrage was to not let users know their battery was wearing out causing the phone to perform slower and have shorter battery life. I don't think we can say Apple knew this was going to happen but we can say that Apple made design choices, thin phone, that provided too little battery overhead so that as the phone aged the problem arose. Instead of being honest, Apple did a software update they didn't explain so as to hide the problem. That is why people should be upset with Apple. Apple needs to include software built into the OS that informs the user that their battery performance has started to degrade and so the performance of the phone will be slowed so as to not create a unwanted software shutdown and that if performance is no longer acceptable then the owner may choose to replace the battery to restore the phone to full performance.