That's just what you get when you hire accountants that know what they're doing and are obligated to pursue the path which results in the lowest amount of tax p

That's just what you get when you hire accountants that know what they're doing and are obligated to pursue the path which results in the lowest amount of tax paid as permitted by law. If Apple didn't do this they'd get sued. Activist shareholders would be all over them in an instant. That puts them in a tough spot. I'm sure Apple would rather that loophole was closed, it's really absurd that they have to do all this just to make it work, but there's nothing they can do about it. The problem here is that the US tax system is utterly bizarre.