[muzani]

With Android, definitely. Entire paradigms are deprecated as it updates. For example, it's easier to enforce privacy/security holes on all Android 10 phones and above as opposed to every Android device in existence. Or do things like file system policy changes.

I don't think it's designed to sell more phones, just an easier way of reducing scope.

Also my experience with programming TV set up boxes is that it's more pragmatic too. Some code was built for old set up boxes with no graphics cards and no versioning. The new ones support 4K, Android, lots of sexy stuff. But the code for the oldest boxes didn't support ES6 or, say, anything above Angular.JS and jQuery. So now you have code written for the minimum hardware even when run on expensive, cutting edge stuff. Planned obsolescence would have saved a lot of trouble and resulted in better experiences.

Smart TVs probably operate the same way, which is why the YouTube built into my TV freezes all the time, but Netflix runs fine on the same hardware.

I'd imagine some similar decision making goes into IoT too.