Why does Apple's statement keep getting misconstrued like this?
They're not saying the attenuation is caused by a software bug. They said the only signal-related "issue" is how the strength bars are calculated. The fact that the antenna attenuates when smothered is completely normal. One side effect of improving reception by having an external antenna is that it becomes much easier to disturb (in this case, by touching a one millimeter slot on the side of the phone).
So, again, the software patch won't fix any kind of hardware attenuation "issues", and Apple's never claimed it would. The potential for higher attenuation is a fact of life with external antennas, but I (and apparently Apple) think the trade-off is fair for better reception in the vast majority of situations (i.e., when you don't touch that part of the phone, or use a case).
Bang on...I agree completely. They should have coated the band though, I really can't understand how they could have not saw those issues coming during development and
testing phases