There's somewhere in the ballpark of 166,000 employees at Apple, just unfathomable scale [1]. It is not unreasonable to ask that someone specific is responsible for each particular small feature and ensuring it keeps working. Trying to apply an economic analysis to such a "free as in beer" operating system does not seem to work well. Consider the question of "how many small holes can you have in your wooden sailing ship"?
It’s not unreasonable to ask but they can and are saying “no”.
Not that it impacts your argument significantly, but for the sake of completeness, Apple employs a huge number of retail employees.