So to remain loyal to its "loyal customers," Apple should stop this business of making better products for less money? Hmm.

WTF does loyalty have to do with any of this? To all you "loyal customers": If you were truly loyal, you'd toss Apple the extra $200. So cut the loyalty crap. You buy what you decide to buy. Apple sells what it decides to sell.

Loyalty does NOT mean buying products that you think are worth the price, even if you buy many products from the same manufacturer. That's not loyalty, that's preference. Loyalty means buying for irrational reasons, like, say, an item is priced about $200 above where it should be and the price will soon come down.

So ... the very people who are complaining about being "mistreated loyal customers" are actually not loyal (not that loyalty should have anything to do with this in the first place).

If being burned occasionally is the price you're willing to pay for instant gratification, fine. We've all made mistakes. But if you whine about it and pretend it's someone else's fault, you are a whiny crybaby.