I have similar questions. At the scale Apple operates I'm sure mistakes are made all the time, but often it feels like there is something missing when these types of stories pop up. I have had support from Apple before and they went out of their way to help me, supervisors doing research and calling me back for example. How Apple stonewalled here makes it seem like it was more than a single large gift card that caused the issue.

I prefer to keep it topped up like that. It's been the same for 20 years.

These retailers have a problem with gift card fraud.

What’s the basis for your preference?

Back in 2015, I traveled to the US and wanted to buy a Macbook Pro at the Apple Store. The configuration I wanted wasn’t available in Apple Stores, and I couldn’t buy it online because at that point there was some limitation in the online store like they only took US credit cards, or something.

At the Apple Store, the employees suggestion (a more senior one, who was consulted) was to buy a gift card for the computer’s cost (~$1500) and pay at the online store with that. I didn’t do it because buying “virtual stuff” for that amount seemed crazy (this was a huge amount of money for me, at the time).

It’s common in Australia for retailers to offer discounts or reward points for gift cards.

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/apple-gift-card

FWIW, in my country credit cards make up about a third of payment volume - gift cards let people fund their Apple Account without a credit card.

It's trivial in some countries to get a 10–30% discount on gift cards.