That's what was said but its all about manufacturing cost. They wanted to have to produce the least amount of models and cover the most amount of markets.
Then claim "oh its better a better user experience, efficiency blah blah".
But in reality the user experience is limited. iPhone 5 can't do voice and LTE on GSM as it reverts to 4G, the competition can. The iPhone 5 can't do voice and data on CDMA at all, the competition can.
So what's a better user experience? Obviously its more efficient, its less hardware doing less work (energy). But now its a moot point since battery life on competitor devices is about on par with the iPhone.
Nexus 4 did a very similar thing except to an extreme. No LTE, however there is only one model that covers most (if not all) GSM markets. No LTE sucks but its reflected in the price which is nice.