The feature is sold as a two year free subscription to the service, not a feature of the device. That suggests to me Apple isn't committed to this forever. They want do be able to abandon the technology and human staffed relay infrastructure if this is eclipsed by satellite 5G or some other option and not get sued in 195 countries for breaking a device feature after the sale.
I don't read this as lack of commitment, I read this as "we want to keep a limit on the total number of active devices" - if it's free for two years then there will be a moderate percentage that always have it because they refresh their device every two years or less, there will be a significantly smaller percentage that use an older device and choose to pay the ongoing fee, and a much larger percentage that keep the device longer than two years but don't pay the fee. This last category is how they'll effectively manage the ongoing costs - anyone who isn't a frequent customer or willing to pay is excluded. It's a solid model.
> That suggests to me Apple isn't committed to this forever.
Apple TV+ is also offered as 1 year free service when you buy a new phone, then you can also say the same about it, but - in fact - needless to say, Apple is committed to it.
