Is it possible they do, and the battery level indicator you're looking at is lying to you?

I don't know, but there seems to be not very much incentive to invest a lot of R&D dollars on this problem from a manufacturer standpoint:

* Devices marketed on how long they last on a single charge, but much less often on how quickly the battery degrades * Batteries are a later upgrade upsell opportunity * I would not be surprised to learn that a significant number of device upgrades start as simply wanting a better battery (but why not upgrade at the same time)

This is often the case. Not all the time, but lots of devices have started doing this.

This is definitely the case for the Prius, even from 2004. I really doubt higher-end manufacturers like Apple wouldn't do the same since they control the entire stack.

I'm not sure I'd want my battery to be "that" smart, safety measures coded into the power/battery drivers (which would be present on the battery itself, not main OS drivers) sounds about right. Optimizing and things like that I rather leave up to the OS, or even an APP (as long as it cannot do anything dangerous).

I mean it's one thing if my OS can control the charging cycle to some extend, whether Apple can install drivers (and bad guys bad stuff) on my Battery "smart" board.

It may seem like a big leap now, but I bet someday (or perhaps even now, why do people place tape on their webcams otherwise) it could become a problem.

But of course, to my knowledge so far Apple is doing a pretty good job in keeping Macs and OSX kind off secure (don't quote me on that), however than again I don't want OSX to become as restrictive as iOS or I'll have to switch to Linux t get my dev-tools working. (not a fan of that personally)

Granted device manufactures are pushing devices out every year or two, and it's in their best interest to offer the longest battery life possible, there is no incentive or evidence present that manufactures are limiting the maximum charge to prolong battery life.