> it wasn't done maliciously.

Depends on how you look at it. One alternative solution to the old battery problem would be to send it to a repair shop to install a new battery.

But Apple doesn't want people to have the right to repair their own devices, so that's not even seen as an option. Throttling to extend battery life is a convenient explanation that both solves the problem and avoids hurting their extremely profitable repair program (where they'd charge maybe $50 less than the cost of a new phone for a battery replacement).