They gained a cost reduction for a single quarter of a single year. No further thought was put into it.

Right, but none of them are new. They’ve all been around for billions of years.

Remote device bricking is cheaper than researching part wear for planned obsolescence.

A library I used to use would put old books for sale outside. If someone came in to pay for them, great, but if they happened to mysteriously disappear, that was fine too.