Very interesting, and possibly quite smart. To the extent this increases the chance that someone pays their bills, it would reduce the interest rate (either explicit or implied) charged by the financing option. It's like how car loans and home loans have lower interest rates than unsecured loans because the lender can seize the collateral. Here, there's much less friction involved (no need to call a repo guy or go through lots of paperwork), just tell Apple.
It does make me wonder what happens if leased devices are stolen. Does the person still have to pay it off, as if they still had it? Perhaps this is how they encourage people to buy AppleCare.