monogram Any device battery can burn at any time, especially when plugged to some cheap unbranded charger/cable like pretty much everyone does (after all, manufacturers don't ship chargers anymore with their phones).
Yes. But over time some battery models are discovered to burn more than others. That is a simple fact.
One might imagine that Google is going through the expense and effort of this process for some 6a batteries with 400+ charge cycles because they're mistaken, or it's part of some secret plan to get some 6a owners (but nobody else) to upgrade, or whatever. But it's also possible that the batteries in some 6a devices are distinctly more likely than typical batteries to burst into flames.
monogram Secondly, do you all realize that this "feature" will actually kill your phone making it drain in hours without any significant use and forcing you to throw it away or replace your battery, like it happened to the 4a?
At present I don't "realize" that. I've heard rumors that the code change limits the charge level the of batteries in some 6a devices to 78%. Since the rollout of the 80% charge-limit option in GrapheneOS, traffic on this forum suggests that lots of people are choosing to limit their battery charging to 80%. How a 78% cap would make those phones "drain in hours" is unclear. Anyway, I plan to defer "realizations" until after the code ships.
monogram Hence if you're affected and scared to madness, why don't you just stop invoking protection and - guess what - either go and replace your battery right now or buy another phone and move on with your life, which you will eventually have to do with this "feature" enabled?
Is it known what fraction of 6a batteries are affected? If it's 25%, then "go and replace your battery right now" wouldn't be great advice for 75% of 6a owners. Maybe instead it's 90% affected... but again it seems as if "realizations" that are had after more facts are in might be more accurate.
Meanwhile, some people have 6a's with cycle counts around 200. Firmware support for the 6a is expected to end in about two years. As currently projected, people with low-cycle-count batteries will observe no change in the behavior of their devices. Some of those people will voluntarily upgrade to another device before hitting 400 cycles.
If somebody has a cycle count over 400, and if they have an affected battery, and if they aren't already limiting charging to 80%, this software change will make a distinct difference in run time between charges, while probably also distinctly reducing the likelihood of the device bursting into flames.