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"...kills the till then legitimately produced Mac-Clones, because they were technically superior"

Given the alternative was being driven out of business by the Mac clone manufacturers, and the fact that Apple employs A LOT of people in the United States (far more than a few niche hardware companies ever did), it seems like they made the correct choice for US jobs.

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So because Apple staying in business is good for US jobs, they get a free pass?

Well, had they gone out of business, all of those jobs would have evaporated. It's not a free pass - it's an organizational restructuring. No business would be crucified for killing an unprofitable division; this happened to be an interesting circumstance where said division was an external vendor. Is it a good business decision to EOL an extremely unprofitable (and potentially game-ending) product line, and refocus on your core business? Yes. For every company ever.

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