I do think Apple should have just undertaken the repairs much, much earlier. I do also think that it was incredibly complex situation, and my guess is Apple was flabbergasted that Nvidia initially wouldn't reimburse them for the failed parts. So, internally at apple, my guess is that it was about the 'principle' of the matter. They also probably recognized that if they started replacing the boards of their own volition without an agreement in place, they would never be able to get any compensation from nvidia at all.

Again, I agree with you, apple should have launched the program much, much earlier.

But, I mean, that's besides the point because this isn't a post about how Apple handled these failing GPUs, it's about Nvidia's inability to work with others.