The title made it sound bad, then I read the article. It basically said they are canceling a subscription service offering. No one is getting cheated out of a phone. You could pay 45 or 55 dollars a month for 2 years and once it was over you could pay that again to get a new phone. So $1080 for their phone + google services or $1320 for the more expensive phone with their services.

It was started with the Pixel 6. The Pixel seven I see listed as $599 through the playstore. So thats $481 or $240.50/year on google services you can avoid paying for and just get the phone. Oh, and you are “eligible” for that new phone whenever you want.