I think the real test would be the sales of the upcoming iPhone 13 . If Apple sees a material difference in their sales, they might consider changing that policy.
However as things stand now, with Apple trying to move more of their revenue to services and the general stickiness of the Apple's platform, this change would be palatable to most users.
I started playing with computers in the early 80s. It was so much fun I made it my career. Computers and the internet were what was exciting and what I spent my time and energy with.
Now I’m retired, and the exciting promise of all this technology has taken such a dark turn that I’m honestly less and less involved with it all. Better to spend time in my garden, or in nature, or eating and drinking with friends.
I dont blame you. After all this change is retroactive to all iPhones, and you might see the iPhone 14 removes the scanning. But then iPhone 15 re-adds it. You're at their mercy.
> If Apple sees a material difference in their sales, they might consider changing that policy.
I think the problem is that it's too late; they expended the effort to build the engine into iOS 15. As far as we know the FBI couldn't compel them to write code like this (see the case with the San Bernardino shooter), but it's easy to believe they could compel Apple to maintain this backdoor in the future.
However as things stand now, with Apple trying to move more of their revenue to services and the general stickiness of the Apple's platform, this change would be palatable to most users.