> Apple would’ve made an exemption for exceptional talent. They didn’t make the exception for him.

Mmm. Don’t count on it. Apple will bend a lot for you, but stuff like office location was never very flexible even before the pandemic. If your team switched offices to an inconvenient location, tough luck. Ultimately it was on you to adapt.

If you were a top performer and threatened to quit over it… well, Apple has a deep bench.