The CPU frequency situation was a one-time thing when they got caught throttling. Up-to-date iPhones getting slower around the time of new model release is an ongoing problem.

I have a 3 years old iPhone with no 3rd party apps (recently removed Uber.app), unused Safari and few email accounts. Apart from emails, I'm using it as a phone. I'm not a heavy smartphone user and never was.

As far as I'm aware the CPU is not throttled but the phone is so slow (even after factory reset and update to current iOS) that waking screen up takes 4-6 seconds. Buying new device with Apple logo is the last thing on my mind when my "perfectly good" 3yo iPhone is getting artificially aged.

But most users are paying those fuckers just because their "old" iPhone got slow.