you say apple doesn't make half baked products?
I guess you forgot that the original iphone had no media messaging, (in 2007!) no blue tooth. and sucked.
I guess you forgot just how bad Siri was when first launched.
I guess you forgot how Apple maps got people lost in desserts, or sent you to the wrong side of countries when trying to get places?
the phone that lost signal when held incorrectly, (like most people held their phones)
the phone where some models would find if they updated over Wifi, (and this happened to my phone and a couple of friends) the stress of downloading the update would cause the wifi chip to heat and break the solder joints, meaning the phone needed to be re-flowed to re-establish WiFi capabilities.
I could probably go on and on... (but really, just go to the apple support forums and look at the amount of unanswered questions...
Apple are the masters of half baked ill thought out ideas.
and you missed the point entirely with the wide connector compared to the lightening cable.
the lightening cable was (when it first came out) ridiculously over priced, tear downs confirmed the apple cable to contain active electronics to stop cheap charge cables being made.
and there were a lot of 3rd party devices out there that had that wide connector.
so what happened is a lot of things that people paid good money for suddenly became obsolete when that connector was changed.
stereo system, alarm clocks, docking stations.
in my case, my old iphone integrates with my car with cable, I don't need to take my eyes off the road, everything is changeable from the steering wheel controls. changing the connector now means the phone does not integrate, and you need to go back to blue tooth radio or aux adapters or FM transmitters. you need to stop looking at the road and pick up your phone to change tracks or playlists etc...
(and the upgrade stereo is probably more than the phone...)
and...
yes, having just spent (not huge amounts) but a fair amount on a set of good headphones. I would definitely miss the headphone port...
(that would probably be enough to put me off all together.)
and no, that's not listening to consumers.
literally no consumer at any time has said.
"what I really want is less flexibility, less connectivity, lower audio quality. to be forced to make use of extra transmitters, that reduce my devices battery life and mean I have to carry separate heavier accessories, that I'll need to change using another separate cable that I have to carry around also... so at any point either my device, or my headphones can run out of battery and I can spend the rest of the day in enforced silence."
sure, apple have had good ideas in their past. removing the most universal connector in the world was not one of them.