It's probably a public perception thing: from my experience and a lot of other anecdotes, they're incredibly accommodating with the service and replacement programs. The Verge or Engadget would have a near annual article about "iPhone [2-3 generations ago] still under AppleCare being replaced with iPhone [more recent generation]."

Yeah, losing out to counterfeiting stinks, but I think they prefer the perception of being customer service centered. Probably worth more to them than the losses it generates.