Re: Is it a big deal?
No, not really, I agree with you but I suppose it was about this "that the firm doesn’t have to reset the warranty period under local laws". Perhaps I just have no experience of such problems, most of my phones have been Nokia and so far I have never had any reason to return anything ever. Things have changed, and reliability in hardware and software has perhaps gone down. Marketing has simply become more important and somebody, like me, who expects something to work at least 5 to 6 years has simply lost touch with the reality.
Still there is perhaps something with this "that Apple replaces the parts in China, rather than the whole phone".
As those phones are produced in China would it not be possible that they have the knowledge and ability to actually replace parts. According to Apple CEO Cook the ability to build the hardware in the US is long gone. So when a iPhone is replaced with a new one, what actually happens to the "old" one, is it dumped into the river like a pig (forgive me for this shit) or are they returned to China, repaired and sold as new. And damned it, if you receive a new one, why do you think that the new, untested one, should be any better than the new one you just returned. Hmm.