But you just moved the goal-posts from a discussion about whether the implementation was faulty (and Apple was misleading their product owners) to one about whether the design compromises are right.

Apple claims that the LED comes on when the camera is active, which it claims helps protect your privacy. That seems to be true, and certainly no-one seems to have any contradictory examples that are not 12+ years old.

I can argue that when one uses a sliding cover, one can easily forget to reset it after a video chat. The design is bad. The right solution is simply not to have a camera. It's just a different design compromise.