Apple is as petty as a little girl. They are "punishing" their users for the EU regulations in an attempt to get leverage by getting their users to complain at their representative against the regulations.

Not only is this disingenuous but also incredibly stupid. They are using their users just like parents would in a divorce to get leverage. As if the kids had anything to do with the parents' issues and had enough power to make a difference.

Even if their customers were to loudly complain, the regulations do not apply to just Apple, so they are asking for preferential treatment in return. Other companies have been able to offer similar features to their customers while complying with the regulations just fine, why can't Apple do it?

The good thing is that they make it easy to not buy and not recommend their devices to anyone in the EU, no matter how good their technology gets. Their features were already often requiring a new device purchase (even when there was no technological need) but now they are also locking stuff because of politics.

EU privacy laws are no joke. Maybe after paying a few billion dollars Apple has learned that by now. If Apple is being too cautious in their roll out to the EU, a competitor will undercut them and get something out first.