> The obvious cynical ploy is extending the EULA idea and apple becoming a phone leasing company. Going from hardware you don't really own, to hardware you really don't own.
I'm afraid that's sadly the way to go, because it aligns incentives... It incentives Apple to make the most robust and repairable devices, and to maintain software as long as possible (BTW that's the business model of Commown, a cooperative lending smartphones, which IMO is good).
An example of this business model being good for long-term support are the HGW and STB in France: They are all lent by the operators, and have stellar support and maintenance. The best-in-class example there is the Freebox Revolution. STB and HGW released in 2011. Running Linux 5.15 in production, upgrade wip to 6.1 (and of course further is planned). Still receiving new features. And they are still being shipped to new customers 12 years later (at reduced pricing of course).
(Please note that simply lending the device isn't enough, you also need actual competition in the market. An US operator lending a HGW has no incentive to keep it working at all since they are usually in a monopoly anyway...)