> If I don't buy the new iPhone XX.0 but instead wait for XX.1, which could include software and hardware fixes, does that make me a free rider?

Yes, that's what free-riding is.

And the major problem, which the article touches on but doesn't do much to explore, is that if you characterize this as "responsible behavior", it will automatically cause itself to fail, because all of the benefits come from free-riding. The only benefit of waiting is that other people might not do it, and those people will drive improvements. If everyone waits, the only thing that happens is that (1) improvements will take longer to be developed, and (2) everyone experiences exactly the same problems as they would have if no one waited. There's no benefit, but increased cost.

Imagine you and everyone you know are inside a minefield. You need to leave, because you have no water.

Does waiting until enough people have killed themselves to establish the outline of a safe path out make you a free-rider?

What is there to be gained by instituting a waiting period before any attempt to leave?