People see this news as the "end of an era" -- an era that began with Apple's reinvention in the early 2000s. That's the implicit message. There are two ways to interpret this:
1. Wow, what an iconic product. Come to think of it, we haven't really felt that way about a new Apple product in a while... Maybe this is not just the end of iPod, but of Apple's product innovation, too?
2. Wow, what an iconic product. Wild to think that we could only have 1,000 songs but even that was revolutionary. Apple changed music forever and they're still ahead of the industry with products like AirPods and Spatial Audio. I wonder what they'll do next?
Interpretation #1 is a very real risk to Apple’s brand. It's the job of their PR team to steer the message toward interpretation #2.