What a messy article. The title says that the cables are limited to 2.0 speeds (which they might as well be), the subtitle mentions charging speed as opposed to transfer speed and the article itself then talks about the port on the device having 2.0 speeds (for non "Pro" models).

Anyways, of course they gimp the base model on purpose. Every company does to set the more expensive models apart obviously, but Apple drives it to the extremes especially in recent years, which makes their line-up incredibly confusing. I mean they've gone out of their way to make their 10th gen base iPad use the old Apple Pencil, and they still don't laminate the display even after they redesigned the exterior.

If you want a new iPhone this fall and you're looking for something in the price range of the standard iPhone 15 (which will still be a very expensive phone of course), I'd recommend looking for previous year's "Pro" model. The iPhone 13 Pro dropped around the iPhone 14 price at launch, and it's essentially better in almost every way.

And because people will mention it: of course, you can also get a phone from a different manufacturer if it suits you, or keep your current phone.