It's a scummy argument tactic, which you've proven is highly effective.
This was their original comment without their subsequent edits:
>I have been logging, redirecting and blocking these queries for these domains and more for years.
>It is one of our biggest complaints about the "new" Apple. There is no option for the user to disable the nonstop phoning home. iOS is a BSD-like OS configured so that the user does not fully control it. The user cannot fully configure it. This is no fun.
>Turn on an iOS device and it will keep trying to connect to Apple servers; it will not stop. An incredible tracking device if those servers keep logs.
It's a far whinier post, with the biggest complaint being that the BSD license allows companies to lock their software down, as intended. Not every piece of software needs to be fully controllable by the end user. I wouldn't call it "repugnant".
No, I'm pretty GP "acts like"
> After many years of desensitization to this practice since the first iPhone, it is neither "a secret" nor "scandalous"
I've never really understood the absurd (but common!) argument that a repugnant state of affairs isn't worth discussion if it isn't new. Usually, the heckler even agrees with the person they're heckling! What's the goal? Sabotage of a cause one agrees with merely to redeem hipster / cynic points? I don't get it.
It's disappointing that GP felt the need to preemptively address this possibility in their post, but it's downright silly that parent didn't even let this fact stop them. So it goes.