Where did you get the information that "apple forces them to require a newer iPad"? This is not true: Apple doesn't force anyone to abandon older versions. The

Where did you get the information that "apple forces them to require a newer iPad"? This is not true: Apple doesn't force anyone to abandon older versions. The only thing that they do and makes this unbearable is that they prevent downgrading devices (or having older simulators or older xcode on newer macs), so testing on older iOS versions is painful or even impossible. But they don't require you to abandon older versions in any code related stuff, you can use modern features and still support older iOS.