It's marketed as being accurate. It's not for large segments of the population. This is clearly a serious problem (and with all pulse oximeters). How is that absurd?
Of course they didn't do it to specifically disadvantage black people, but they clearly did not do their due diligence to make sure it worked properly with black people. That's the issue. You're doing semantic quibbling over your own particular notion of what "racism" is.
The Apple Watch oximeter functionality -- basically a pretty silly gimmick -- is explicitly marketed as “not intended for medical use” and “only designed for general fitness and wellness purposes.” The problems that optical oximeters have with darker skin is well known, painfully obvious, and a basic reality of physics.
Is it? Apple got a FDA certification for the ECG, if that isn't for all consumers it's a problem.
On another note, the FDA handing out "certification" in addition to "approval" seems like a deliberate way to confuse consumers when one is basically a stamp for money.