Your points are well made but I think maybe you keyed on my reply to an earlier post without realizing that I was simply commenting on the assertion that a Ti shell would cost $1000.00.
I know firsthand how to design both the processes and tooling for this type of item. I have been in product engineering for 21 years working for a company that is foremost in its field. We invented a specific category of consumer goods made from titanium 15 years ago and I have extensive experience in dealing with this kind of thing (though I am more involved in marketing these days- we have smart kids to do the grunt work
).
The tooling is trivial when capitalized for these volumes, there is no appreciable R&D involved in a fine-blanked and punched part like the Apple shell. It's 40 year old tech, even out of Ti.
Again, based on cost, it's not that big a throw. Based on value, there would be a significant price hike- but not a thousand dollars. That was my only point. A synthetic sapphire cover layer and beta Ti shell would add $400-500 to the retail price if the marketing people do their job right. 1-2% of the market would be interested.
On a consumable throwaway item like this, with a three year lifespan for 90% of users, one could argue it would be a waste. Obviously someone at Apple made that decision long ago, or they could easily offer features like that- or, like Sony did 10 years ago, offer a higher end package with ordinary guts at a 500% premium (I'm thinking of their Japan-only limited edition MD players from about 1999-2002- forgot the brand they created for that line).
Apple makes its bones on the concept that anyone with the means can buy their gear, which they present as being the best. Perhaps they have reasoned that if they were to introduce an aspirational boutique line it might reduce the cachet of their mainstream products.