The issue is that Apple knew about the bad batteries* , denied it and discouraged battery replacement, thus leading to increased iPhone sales if users wanted a decent experience - defrauding its own customers.

That's not good faith at all. That apologists keep talking about batteries but ignore the real problem smacks of a PR campaign.

* We actually don't know if the slowdown was only for bad batteries - that's Apple's version, but it could be that they applied the throttling generally. I'm unaware of any third party who has verified this.