> there is no way to recoup the development cost

You recoup the costs by *selling more iphones* because they have functionality the competition does not have.

Investing in your platform is not "giving it away for free", it's making sure consumers have reasons to buy your products and not competitors.

If tomorrow Samsung phones offer this out of the box, and any earbuds maker can access it Samsung will gain sales and users that would've looked at iPhones for this feature won't.

The lengths people will go to justify nonsensical margin-protecting walled garden business choices is insane.