I don't see anything wrong with this. The vast majority of customers don't care about the quality of the analogue output. Half of iPhone users use the inbox earphones, and I'll bet that a good chunk of the other half use wireless earphones. Of the remaining 30% (or whatever) how many of them are only using non-included 3.5mm earphones because their original pair broke/they didn't feel comfortable/they liked the way Beats looked? The number of people who care about audio quality on their iPhone (and who aren't willing to buy an external DAC or Lightning headphones) is probably very small - and Apple have no obligation to serve them.



(Also not really convinced these, or any other audiophiley measurements mean anything without a double blind test)