This is total bullshit. I would bet real money that a grand total of ZERO users "thought their phone was just old and slow and bought a new one" as a result of this issue.
Zero.
Zero.
What do you think the average user thinks when their older phone performs worse after an OS update? "Aha, I bet the vendor is throttling the performance to preserve battery life, which I can fix by replacing with a new battery, a repair process which the vendor makes clear and easy!"
This has not been my experience. I'm a technical iPhone user and I don't even research it this much, I just think "%#&* they updated the OS again and now my phone is slow again"
I wouldn't so arrogantly claim to know how consumers spend their money on technology.
It's what you normally do when the new phone comes out.
I did it with my iPhone 3G when they put the new iOS on it. It became barely usable and i got an iPhone 4.
That was real. The 3G was SLOW.
This time it was not real.