You asserted “this only exists to pad the bottom line”, and I’m refuting that by giving a reason the feature provides value to me.

“Stolen mode” isn’t really a thing with Activation Lock; Apple correctly assumes that the average victim of theft isn’t alert enough to flip some switches in iCloud.

Thieves know that iPhones are useless - now even more so - in their default state, and can only be removed from that state with deliberate action from the legitimate owner.

That has real life value, and so your accusation that it “only exists to pad the bottom line” is wrong.

Their point is that they make the process to remove the lock more confusing so as to make it so more people accidentally leave it on and brick their used devices.

This doesn't mean the theft lock feature itself doesn't have a purpose, just that making it confusing to remove was intentional to decrease hardware reuse.

They have a page exactly for this, first hit on Google for “delete sell iPhone” https://support.apple.com/en-us/109511

As someone who always trades in old devices, I promise you every single reseller willing to buy your phone will have these instruction as part of their “sell to us” process. I’ve used at least 3-4 different places over the years.

Send them a locked device, they’ll send it back because it’s unsellable.

No legit place is buying locked devices. Which means they don’t sell them.

What a wild claim to make without any actual proof.

> not talking about the stolen mode here

Of course you are. If anyone except the original owner can remove the lock, it’s more valuable to a thief. (Same if the owner can be tricked into removing it or do so accidentally.)