Until the statistics are known, we don't know if it's on the whole, which implies a wide spread issue. People are so neurotic nowadays that a lot of times they will see someone complain about something, then perceive the same thing themselves without it actually being the case. Since there are such huge numbers when it comes to iPhone experiences, there are always bound to be fringe cases of people not getting what they expect. What you can count on is that Apple cares about their broader reputation, "on the whole", so if this is a material bug that can be identified and repeated, they will fix it.
Another thing that I think is getting glossed over here is the fact that until Apple took action, Qualcomm represented a complete monopoly in wireless modems. They had to do something to break the monopoly...whether it included actions that broke the law, I guess we'll find out (or not).