Patrick, either Charlie or I am offended, since you called me him. I suspect it's him that's offended.
As for dropping code, I'm very glad they do that. Otherwise the whole system gets bloated. If all they did was to comment out the old code and leave it there, when compiled it would be kept in as comments, bloating the size of the OS. Windows does that all the time. Apple takes an approach that technology more than 6-7 years old is antiquated and too much trouble to maintain. The problem is, of course, that the hardware they build is so rugged and reliable, that even though it is getting a bit long in the tooth, it's still functioning. So they are caught in a dilemma: Do they abandon models that still work, or do they dumb down new features and functions to work in those old devices, at the expense of not working as well in the new devices due to bloat. Microsoft took the latter approach and the result is a very bloated Windows operating system that has code in every install that gets used in maybe 5% of the systems, but can break 100% of them. And which presents security opportunities for hackers to penetrate the system. Apple uses the former approach of just cutting the cord, figuring that most user can and will upgrade before a system gets to be 7 years old.
Of course the beauty of Apple hardware is that when Apple no longer supports it in the new releases of the OS, it will still be supported for a few years with patches, and after that you can always install Windows on it, or Linux, and keep going as a system for years past that.
