The next few upgrade cycles for Apple will be about enabling AI functionality through an increase in ram. So if people want AI, they’ll have to get a new phone.
This is the only reason I got the 17p. My 14p was and continues to be a fine phone (now tester for my son’s app). Useful offline inference with the context of your phone is revolutionary stuff.
Sounds like that move would also be about artificially restricting features from cloud models that don't require significant local ram.