I seem to remember it was not a ionization issue but something with local temperatures increases around the ear when you were using it without an earset.
Anyway, Apples knows what the norms are, decided not to care, gets caught and has to retire a phone, nothing exceptional here.
I doubt they’d have to retire the phone - digital radio power levels are normally pretty easy to change in the radio firmware. Which also means it’s pretty easy to change, intentionally or unintentionally, in a later OS version.
Perhaps Apple chose to cheat to improve reception after mandatory testing was complete and the phone was available to buy, figuring they’d never get caught out. Perhaps Apple didn’t retest with later OS versions and it was unintentional. We will probably never know.
They could have changed things through updates which exacerbated the issue and made the modem emit more.
I have no clue if that is why but that would be my bet.
I’m kind of surprised they would have been able to release the device and ship it to customers with that issue in the first place.
