[dpkonofa]

Louis is not a good example, though. He is a very rare exception to the issue that Apple is fighting against.

Louis definitely knows his stuff and has the technical knowledge to repair devices and probably doesn't need to be certified in any way. The number of people that have the skills Louis does, though, is vanishingly small.

So, in his case, Apple is asking him to pay money every year to be certified in something that he likely already knows how to do and is not willing to send him parts to do the repairs he knows how to do. That's a reasonable position.

From Apple's perspective, though, Louis is the exception and they want everyone certified. To them, Louis can easily get certified and join their program and there's no need for them to not enforce the same policies for all repair shops.

The issue lies in the repair shops that don't have the skills that Louis does. Apple wants to make sure that repairs done by those people, who are in the vast majority, are done to a certain level of quality. It's the same reason why they replace full components instead of opting for board repairs like Louis is also able and skilled enough to do. For Louis's customers, they'd get a great repair and a reasonable cost. For everyone else, they'd get a subpar repair for the same cost.