I used to roll my eyes when I read people like you with ‘no upgrades’ policies & thought it was a bit much.
But like I said my experience with iOS 26 on my 16e bought in march 2025 was the final straw.
I basically got 6 months of a great experience of it ie when I was on 18 and now I’m stuck with the mess that is 26.
I agree - downgrades should be allowed ie to downgrade at any point to the latest version of the previous major os version
Or Apple should release highly optimised versions of iOS for each model that they support with finely grained controls allowing us to turn off battery sucking features.
Which I don’t think that they’ll do. So the ability to downgrade is crucial.
Apple will never allow downgrading, so we as users can only stay behind. Like I said, Apple not allowing downgrading, today, barely affects me. I’d downgrade a couple of older devices that Apple forced out but apart from those (an iPhone 6s and a 9.7-inch iPad Pro, whose original iOS version is iOS 9 and both of which are 10 years old, and at this point one is my quaternary phone and the other one my tertiary iPad), everything I have runs original iOS versions.
My #1 issue is (third-party) developers removing support. Why do you think I’m so harsh with my wording towards them? Because if they weren’t such pathetic garbage and maintained support, I’d be fine for far longer. Apple doesn’t even do that!!!! Every single Apple service and app works on every iOS version that was ever compatible (with maybe an irrelevant exception or two today). So Apple is fine on that regard, and since (almost) everything I have is already running original iOS versions anyway, downgrading wouldn’t affect me much today.
But I learned this just like you: through fire. I got burned once, twice, three times. 13 years ago, with iOS 7, I said enough is enough and I never updated willingly again. Apple forced me with the 6s and 9.7-inch iPad Pro like I said, but apart from that, I have everything on original versions and I never made the updating mistake again.
If you don’t push devices to their final versions and with the exception of the garbage that is iOS 26, updates are better today than what they were with the 6s. But they still impact devices severely. They might not leave them with one hour of screen-on time, but battery life is massively reduced anyway. They might not be unusable like an iPhone 4s on iOS 9, but they’re still significantly affected anyway.
The sad part for you is that if you had gotten ANY other iPhone than one that debuted with iOS 18, the first major update would’ve been fine (iOS 8 through 18 barring 11 were all fine as a first major update), but you were unlucky enough to get the second exception in 13 years and update to that.
I also got the second exception. My phone is an iPhone 16 Plus, bought, like you, in March 2025. But I didn’t update it and it still flawlessly runs iOS 18.
If I could give you a single piece of advice, it’d be that from now on, never update again. If compatibility forces you out you might have to, but you might find that that takes longer than you think, and if compatibility forces you out then there was nothing you could do anyway.
This approach also makes newer devices less relevant. I don’t even care about new iPhones or iPads because mine work so well that I don’t need to buy new until I want to. My Xʀ, today, seven years after purchase is still a three-day battery life phone for me which works as well as an iPhone 17 (or better! iOS 12 was really well optimised and people complain about 26 even on the 17 series).
And to be honest: my Xʀ is better optimised today on iOS 12 than my 16 Plus on iOS 18. Yes, it is better. I’d use it today. But I can’t. Why? Because of garbage, pathetic, abhorrent developers who can’t stop removing support.
