And I don't care.
Because my phone has bluetooth, the Mac has bluetooth (supposedly!), and a standard bluetooth function is to set up PAN etc. functions to function as a hotspot.
And, yes, I have actually used this (if you are travelling, and you join the paid-for wifi on a plane or similar, they will only allow you to connect on one Wifi MAC address... and they often shut down third-party wifi networks using technology like Meraki Air Marshal - which deauths clients on all other wifi it finds in range! If you instead configure your phone to join the wifi and then tether with other devices over Bluetooth - they are blissfully unaware that you're sharing that connection with a dozen other devices). I use this trick all the time, not least because my phone tends to be an amazing 5G / Wifi 6 router, but it also saves me paying out for connecting EVERY device that we're using (e.g. my daughter's Steam Deck can connect to my phone via Bluetooth, as can everyone's phone, etc.).
I did it once in France to work around some silly restrictions on a cafe wifi and it worked so well, I've done it several times since and teach people how to do it.
But in this case, this is an artificial limitation that doesn't apply to iPhone because they CHOOSE to make it not apply, hence they have CHOSEN to deliberately make it apply to non-iPhones.
And I don't play that game. That kind of trick "costs" you my money as a consumer, every time.
If I have a device with Bluetooth / PAN functionality, I expect to be able to use it with all my other devices that have such capability too (my car also has this, for example, plus the Steam Deck, etc.). I do not expect, nor tolerate, devices arbitrarily choosing what they'll "allow" me to do based on the brand of my unrelated devices.
And it all factors into my purchasing decisions that a company is playing such games, knowingly and deliberately. I don't even care if it "would ever affect me". I don't do business on those terms.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
