And despite your anecdotes, evidence shows that switching didn’t hurt Apple sales. What were the people who were “burnt” by Apple abandoning 30 pin connectors going to do? Switch to Android and still have to switch cables?
And the same is true again now for USB-C, "just switch to USB-C" is not an answer that sounds good for most people, and Apple is still paying for the bad will from customers from the 30-pin connector transition. The USB-C transition is only going to add to that.
No they are not. The only time 30 pin is _ever_ mentioned is in these discussions about USB-C.
That “bad will” was overblown to begin with and everyone has forgotten about it in the 10 years and several billion products sold since.
Apple supports it and sells the dongle.
Can’t realistically ask for more than that.
For us old Apple enthusiasts there were many many upsides to apples success and mainstreaming, some of the downsides include the hysterical reaction to anything they do.