Technically Apple absolutely did the right thing. Slowing down phones to prevent them from shutting off randomly is objectively the right move, especially since Apple’s SoCs are so performant they typically have enough headroom to offer reasonable performance even at lower clock speeds.

Where they failed was in not communicating this and trying to Apple Magic “it just works pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” when they should have been straightforward.

That’s basically this controversy in a nut shell. The tin foil hatting over planned obsolescence that always comes out has never made sense for a company that supports its smartphones with software updates longer than anyone else in the industry. Even this throttling was really about prolonging the usable life of your phone—you are more likely to think you need to buy a new phone if it’s randomly turning itself off all the time, rather than just feeling a little slower than it used to.