In my own experience, I have noticed that Apple's software 'breaks' more on older hardware, be that Mac's, iPhones or iPads. For all the credit apple gets for supporting older devices, those devices are definitely not treated as first class citizens. For example, the touch keyboard on my (work) iPhone 12 Pro works decidedly worse than on my (private) iPhone 16 Pro. The error rate is much worse, and I believe it's due to the amount of useless features that get added with each new installment of iOS.

Whether that's intentional or not (I believe it is), Apple should focus more on delivering a stable experience, on both new and old devices.

I echo the sentiment a lot of people have already expressed. That is, using Apple products is like being a junkie. You need to use their products because there is no real alternative, but you feel kind of dirty because of their practices.To me, that sounds like it should be a huge red flag for Apple execs.