I haven't been following every detail of this story, but what evidence has been presented that this is a bug rather than a feature? The only reference I've seen to it being a bug is your speculation to that effect. It very well may be, but I didn't know that had transitioned from your well-educated guess to a verified fact.

That said, I get that much of this was known about by some experts, but once it became known to the larger audience, Apple had a responsibility to respond in a timely manner to it, and to inform users of their plans to correct the problem. In my opinion, they failed on that, as many companies do. This is more of a complaint about how tech companies think they can just weather the storm with vague press releases when user privacy concerns are bringing them bad press, not a specific criticism of Apple alone.