Originally Posted by
RTWFF
Apart from a "Let's bash Apple" motive, the OP is clearly ignorant of how software and hardware evolve over time. It is generally not possible, for example, to run Microsoft's Office 2016 program on a personal computer only capable of running Windows XP. There is nothing evil, no "gotcha" here. It's the way software always evolves, and at some point maintaining backwards hardware compatibility becomes too great an overhead and earlier hardware configurations are no longer supported for later versions of Apps/software
Since software and hardware is evolving rapidly we can expect backwards compatability to have equally short support timelines
The OP has been working in computer industry since 1985, has PhD in computer security and regularly works for law enforcement in the field. Obviously he is well aware of more "gotchas" than you are.
If you want a lesson in SW/HW life cycle, ask me, or have a look at Ubuntu LTS releases, have a look how long is life cycle of Windows 7. I can and do run W10 on computer that is 5+ years old (admittedly, it was bought over specified at the time of original purchase) and W10 is running on it better than W7 did. So why do you need new Apple device for nearly every major release? As for the Apple bashing, have a look at life cycle of iPads and iPhones.
So for a iPhone App, not to be compatible with a device only little over 2 years old is ridiculous. Particularly considering that the new version of the App does not introduce any functionality that would not work on 5c.