I am looking at my AppleCare and proceeding to give zero fucks.
Does that mean that you feel that Apple should have the sole right to repair Apple goods? Or that people should either have Apple Care or replace?
No but at no point does Apple have to make it easy for third party repairers for the sake of it.
There are three failure outcomes we need to consider:
1. In warranty failures. Apple are absolutely stellar compared to every other vendor I've dealt with there. Any defects they give me new hardware every time.
2. Out of warranty failures. Where you have decent consumer rights (like here in the UK) that is covered. Else suck it up or cover it with insurance.
3. In/out of warranty damage. Suck it up or cover it with insurance.
There is no place for 3rd party repair in that other than the "suck it up" option and suck it up is universally people who (a) can't afford to replace the device outright or (b) didn't take the insurance out. Lots of suckers at the moment.
Don't buy what you can't afford to replace or take insurance out to cover it.Repair is a dying little industry like strip malls and high street retail. Look at the TV shops. All gone. This is how the market works. You either embrace progress or fight it to the death. These are the death gasps.
We are all biased here to this because we know how stuff works. That is all.
The issue doesn't seem to be related to real issues with third party repair, they seem to be related to Apple attempting to corner the older device and second hand market. Just from an environmental point of view that doesn't seem to be very desirable.
There is literally no environmental problem here. Apple are heavily investing in automated disassembly lines and recycling etc. Look for "apple daisy".
What is going to happen and is happening now is you'll subscribe to your apple hardware monthly and I have no problem with that. Everything is transient, ephemeral and the thing I need is support and cover for my tangible items.