I don't think this situation qualifies, or maybe it's on the border. This seems more akin to using all of the bandwidth provided to me by one of a few companies coordinating together to extract as much as possible from their customers. Apple's had a policy like this for ages, if it wasn't more profitable than not for them, then they'd have done something about it under the miserly rule of the outgoing CEO.

Some people occasionally returning products—that they intended to keep or not—is not like all of the energy grid being consumed by data centers, nor is it like all of the wetlands being paved over for suburbs.

Im also against this practice but both of you can be understanding the facts the same and still coming to opposite conclusions. Thats the whole point of the tragedy of the commons!