Why is the Apple ‘lifestyle’ is desirable to such an extent? As typically Apple is form over function: virtual keyboard vs physical keys, all internal memory (no SD card), non removable battery, smaller battery (which supports ...), thinner and lighter design, don’t forget Apple resisted moving from its 3.5” screen to any larger screen (again because it was better form over function to them), etc (fill in a gripe against the iPhone).
I will respond to this specific portion of your reply as I think it will build on the rest of my argument.
The TL;DR of my reply is that what you stated only seems that way to someone with an engineering mindset. Who has been conditioned to value specs over the end user experience, and that more is always better.
Apple is a design company (or more specifically, a design-led one). In the eyes of Steve Jobs and Jony Ive, perfect products are made by cutting out everything not absolutely required in the design. To them, it's about creating products that are cut down to their absolute most basic form, with nothing standing between the user and the device. The products aren't about having the most features, or being the "most useful", but about distilling out the purest mixture of form and function possible.
That's why Apple doesn't do removable batteries or expandable storage (amongst many other things they don't do), not so much to force obsolescence, but because Apple decided that doing so would sacrifice the integrity and the beauty of the phone. But of course, if someone is convinced that Apple is out to nickel-and-dime their customers, then yeah, everything Apple does will seem that way to him or her.
What I guess I am trying to say is that when you buy Apple products, you are not just buying a phone, or a tablet, or a laptop. You are buying into one company's vision of how one ought to interact with the world. Take the way the iPhone, Apple Watch and AirPods interact with one another. How they would have worked with the now-defunct Airpower. You are buying into a lifestyle (for lack of a better term). The promise of an integrated solution that just works right out of the box.
That is what makes Apple so polarizing. They often aim for product experience at the sacrifice of user choice. And if their idea of what you want in a product matches yours, then it is full of secret magic and delight. And if not, it will be pure frustration, like jogging through quicksand.
Which then brings me to
Again my view is that there actually is “harm” from the continued inclusion of the headphone jack. Harm that critics aren't recognizing or willing to admit or such. As again, it should be a no-brainer to reject and just collect good will points on - if not chastise Apple for.
I have my own theories on why Apple chose to do away with the headphone jack. Just watch the iPhone 7 keynote in 2016 when they announced the AirPods. They flat out admitted as much - that Apple has a vision of a wireless future. Apple sees a world in which the headphone jack will lose value, and they would rather navigate this change in the driver's seat and be in a position to shape this new world order rather than wait until alternatives actually appear on the scene in full force.
Do these companies also removing the headphone jack also share Apple's conviction, or is this a case of "Monkey see, Monkey do, but Monkey doesn't know what it is doing?" They may not know or understand why Apple is doing this, but they are hopping along for the ride regardless in the hope that it will lead them somewhere.
I feel these people have the right to be angry that Apple has removed the headphone jack. My stance is not that it doesn't suck, but that it will be worth it in the end. Just like Apple blocking flash, or having only USB-C ports on their laptops, or removing the floppy drive.
Is Apple right? I guess that's a riddle only time can answer.
makes no sense.
