This is about speed, not cost of repair. The selling point of Apple Care is that it takes the stress out of your phone breaking.

When my sister's iPhone's screen broke, she took it to the Apple Store at the mall to use her Apple Care benefits. When they gave her some enormous time estimate, she marched to the iFixUrPhone stand and they did it in an hour. I believe Apple knows that this is a problem and is taking some preliminary steps to fix it. That's what this play is about.

Yeah, you kind of need to make an appointment through their app. When you do that, you walk in, they find you a person, then it takes about the same hour.

I'm honestly surprised they even accepted you as a walk-in

This still follows my point that when you buy Apple Care, you are paying for your phone breaking to be a non-stressful event. Having to find a working device, make an appointment, wait for your appointment (while your anxiety about being phoneless builds up), remember the appointment, and be on time is not nearly as nice an experience as walking up to a table at the mall you've never talked to before and getting it fixed right there for cash.

Side note: I don't remember saying she was a walk-in. I don't know if she was; I'll have to ask her.

>(while your anxiety about being phoneless builds up)

This is a truly terrifying thing to me about today's younger generations that have "always had" a device and have use the social platforms just as long. I don't mean for that to sound patronizing or belittling. It is just so out of my own experience it is hard for me to empathize, but I do sympathize as I realize that some of that dependancy was/is intentionally juiced by the social platforms.

It's not just that, but also knowing that one's spouse might be trying to call and getting frustrated. Or needing the phone for 2FA.

Perhaps it's true for richer people in the developed world. 3rd party repair shop is a thing in worldwide.