>1G Apple Watches and iPads typically work just as well as they did on day 1

Yes, and no.

I have a launch-day iPad, and it became less and less useful over the years as the apps stopped being supported by their developers.

The last version of Safari for the original iPad is unusable if you surf anywhere but HN. It might as well be Lynx.

This time last year, my iPad was down to just e-mail, notes, streaming video from my satellite box, PBS video, and a great app from Panic called Status Board.

Now it's down to just e-mail and notes, so it spends more time in the desk drawer than propped up on a tiny easel on top of the desk.

I'd support that if commercial OS vendors wouldn't keep ratcheting up the resources the OS requires with every release. My newer iPad is a horrible laggy mess since I upgraded it to iOS 11.

You're complaining that it can't continue to be upgraded and do new things, not that it can't still do the things it used to do.

I am very much complaining that it can't still do the things it used to do. Because mobile apps tend to rely on cloud services, and apps that rely on cloud services tend to be relatively quick to introduce breaking changes that cause old versions of the app to stop working properly, and at some point you stop being able to upgrade the app because of library compatibility issues.

To some extent, RMS is right on this subject: When your devices rely on the cloud, it means you don't really own them, because any cloud-dependent functionality continues to exist at the pleasure of others.