I think what you are witnessing here is a shift in demographics within the company. When Jobs was around, product was king. When engineers said we needed these components, the business folks would figure out how to make the economics work.
Now what we are witnessing is the product people are not in charge. The business folks are. So you start to see them tell the product folks they can't do something because it is not cost effective and that is profound.
There was an interesting idea floating around Designer News—Without Steve Jobs nobody can contain Johnny Ive.
Jobs was a champion of the user. Tim Cook's specialty is in logistics, and probably defaults to Ive on many product decisions. In the mean time Ive continues designing beautiful products that focus on beauty and compromise on function.
Now what we are witnessing is the product people are not in charge. The business folks are. So you start to see them tell the product folks they can't do something because it is not cost effective and that is profound.