[Eric Pode of Croydon]

If developers would just continue to make the "iOS6 and older" version of their software available as a no-support free download, I'd be fine with that and never complain about the upgrade treadmill.

But I suspect they don't do that precisely because there are a lot of users who would decide they can do just fine with the last generation of hardware and software.....

[ctdonath2]

Actually, that is the norm.
App Store retains older versions and provides those to people installing from older platforms. Not a choice made by the developer (AFAIK).

Thing is, I continue to get crash reports from those users - and each time, I think “please, PLEASE upgrade already - I fixed that problem!”

[ReignOfError]

It varies by developer, but I have an old iPhone 3GS running IOS6 that received updates to a few apps in the last week. Pandora in particular is good about supporting older versions; I suspect that being able to use old hardware as a streaming platform is a big reason a lot of their subscribers subscribe.

I also have an iPod Mini, discontinued 10 years ago, that I was able to plug into iTunes on Yosemite and restore.