Its because Apple have such a generous returns policy if products go wrong, consumers then feel they can be cheeky if they make a mistake themselves I suppose.
Yup, and just like Costco they're realizing that while many of their customers are honest, the spike in people trying to cheat them isn't worth having some of the best CS when it comes to being lenient with fixing and replacing devices. Next time anyone wants to complain about it they can address people like the OP, not Apple.