This crosses into personal attack. That's not allowed on HN. It only makes things worse, and we ban accounts that do it repeatedly, so please don't.
I've tried talking to friends and family (who all make much less money than me, and some are struggling financially) about switching to Android, and they just smile and ignore me. Face it: Americans are usually broke because they refuse to live within their means, and they insist on believing they're temporarily embarrassed millionaires. You can try educating them about cheaper, better options but they'll insist on buying the full-priced expensive shiny thing that all their friends have.
As for #1 (and #3), why would he want to help fund Apple and their high prices and anti-consumer practices?
Why would he do something when he can be morally smug at the “man” on the internet?
Personal attacks will get you banned here. Please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't do this again.
More generally, will you please (a) not post unsubstantive comments to HN, and (b) edit the nasty swipes out of the comments you do post? We're hoping for a bit better than that here.
Some things you could have done:
1) Offer to buy the parents a replacement.
2) Offer to take the iPad to a third party to repair. Like Louis Rossman and offer to pay for the repair.
3) Offer to setup a GoFundMe for the replacement or to cover the cost of the repair.
4) Educate the parents that Android is a cheaper better option and determine the best action to recover the data (can be done) and move over to Android.
5) Educate the parents that companies like Louis Rossman exist and can repair Apple devices and to research on the internet for more information.
And yet, you did nothing.