I’d like to point out that this:

see, for instance, the deliberate slowing-down-with-updates scandal from a few years ago.

this never happened. What you may be referring to is Batterygate where they would intentionally throttle older devices based on their age and presumed battery degradation in order to give the devices a longer life span. The articles also mention that since iOS 11 / iPhone 11 the phones have better battery management and monitoring.

My 11 Pro that I have bought in 2020 April is still working as well as on the day of purchase. This is after one battery swap in 2024 April, when battery degraded below 80% capacity and the system announced that performance would be throttled. It is expected that the 11 Pro lineup will retain new updates until at least 2026 September.

Now here’s the thing: these newer iPhone Pro models age so well, with just a battery swap every ~3-4 years, I wouldn’t be surprised if some movement in the EU will step up to force legislation on extending support for them. But still, six years of support is pretty good compared to most other vendors.