There are more robberies than a mugging. Pick pockets are a real scourge. If you have a reliable way to turn stolen goods into currency, you are incentivized to take that item. Jewelry -> pawn shops for example.
The anti-theft measure here makes it not profitable, or much harder to profit, from taking a phone because you can't resell it or strip the valuable parts. I had a friend get pick pocketed in spain, and the next day the phone was several countries away.
Just because people can get mugged regardless of perceived wealth doesn't mean that we don't try to reduce the risk.
It's about EV per phone. The more security, the lower the EV. Eventually, it isn't even worth it for informed, career pickpockets to take it. There'll always be pickpockets, but phones are much less of a target because of measures like these.
Moving stolen electronics for phone components has been a consistent revenue stream for a long time and there's a lot of organization that goes into it. No one is pretending this solves the problem, rather that it creates a negative incentive for targeting phones specifically.
The world of scamming and petty theft is vast. I've known some real slick thieves, and they are of the opinion that lifting a phone is just not worth it these days. However, this deterrent is obviously going to be effective on a spectrum. If someone is trying to sell you stolen goods, are you going to buy a new iphone from them on the off chance you can get parts out of it?
The anti-theft measure here makes it not profitable, or much harder to profit, from taking a phone because you can't resell it or strip the valuable parts. I had a friend get pick pocketed in spain, and the next day the phone was several countries away.
Just because people can get mugged regardless of perceived wealth doesn't mean that we don't try to reduce the risk.