And the reason Apple has been collecting is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which in trying to make accounting more accountable, will not allow a company to fully book the revenue from a product when it is sold, if some feature in that product will not be “turned on” until some later time. Apple chose to fully book revenue from iPod touch, so it must charge for feature upgrades when a part of the feature was already built into the product when it was sold. (Apple is using a conservative interpretation of SOX.)

Apple has a limited selection of chips it can buy. Those chips, because quantity orders lowers the price, often have capabilities which Apple does not now intend to implement.

The reasons may vary: the software isn’t ready, the hardware interferes with the other equipment or the capability interferes with marketing of another Apple product.

Apple may decide to turn on this capability later. But you bought the iPod Touch with its advertised capabilities. You got what you paid for. Why do you object to paying for improvements which might be added in the future?

If you don’t want those capabilities, don’t buy the upgrade. Why do you expect to receive them for free? Why do you think you deserve them?

Apple never promised you a pony.