You’d rather they not release updates to support them?

I'd rather they did so I don't have to upgrade

edit: my original post wasn't clear I see - I meant I don't want to ditch the phones they've got and hope Apple releases an update for ios 16

Ohhhh, I see what you mean now. I read that as you didn't want to upgrade the software, but you meant you didn't want to replace the hardware.

Yeah, that makes sense. I hope you get an update for them, too.

Why cant they just release security patches for older versions of iOS instead of forcing to upgrade version?

The exploit was always there, you just didn't know about it, but attackers might have. The only thing that changed is that you're now aware that there's a vulnerability.

And now everyone else is aware of it too... including anyone marginally above a scriptkiddie.