You betcha they don't care. They will discontinue Rosetta 2 in not to long a time and a lot of software, especially custom software wont work anymore. That's just what they did with the x86 transition.
Pretty unlikely this will turn out to be very close to the same time schedule as the PPC-> x86. The situation is
very substantially different. Several reasons.
1. Apple owns Rosetta 2. Apple did
not own Rosetta. The first 'Rosetta' was an Apple named veneer they slapped on top of Transitive's 'QuickTransit'.
en.wikipedia.org
Which meant each Mac sold meant that Apple owed a royalty payment to someone. (i.e., an on going cost center. ) In contrast, Apple built their own technology for Rosetta 2. Yes, they paid relatively a lot up front but after it is working the costs don't have to be high if they stop putting in new features.
Furthermore in 2009 IBM bought Transitive. So Apple trying to 'out leverage' a small company like Transitive for low royalty rates wasn't going to work the same against IBM. Transitive was 'shopping' themselves and their tech in 2007-2008 to other big tech firms. That shouldn't have been a secret to Apple.
2. Apple is adding different usages for Rosetta than just macOS. Apple has extended this into running Linux binaries also. Apple can't mandate that x86 Linux apps simply vanish with the same leverage they can use on macOS apps.
[ If Apple was deeply committed to shrinking the costs of Rosetta 2 as rapidly as possible they would not adding more incremental usages to the software. ]
Rosetta 2 is unlikley to ever get AVX added. Or virtualization or other parts that would make it harder to maintain on a small fixed budget over the long term. But if the investement is low then the motivate to quickly kill it is also likely low also. ( if it works and it is cheap ... why kill it? )
3. During the PPC -> Intel transition Apple has three ports to deal with. the Mach Kernel on PPC , Intel, and ARM. What seems to be often lost in the context is that Apple was throwing tons of money and resources on growing ARM OS porting at the same time as getting off x86. It wasn't the entire macOS stack, but macOS releases were being delayed to get iOS upgrades out the door. Once Apple decided to move past web-apps on the Phone and rolled out the iPad there was lots more work to do on the ARM OS port side . (i.e., more money , more people resources , etc.)
This context is almost a complete 180 degree opposite to that. Intel and ARM OS kernels are relative mature (besides the new changes Apple makes each year.). There are close to 100M Intel Mac users out there. Higher user base inertia and a stable software base. the ASM OS version actually has the larger user base that pays
more money into OS development
without any macOS on ARM revenue input at all. . Apple is moving toward what was already paying the bills. Not some 'new' money but the established 'old' money.
Apple finished the PPC -> x86 transition in 18 months on a two year schedule. Here, Apple is just as far
over time budget as the previous transition was under it. Still selling Intel Macs now in transition year
three. Possibly even an cancelled 'M2 Extreme' ( probably going to have to 'lean' on the MP 2019 for most of 2023, if not limp into 2024 on it. So pretty good chance won't really finish transition for four years. ). The 2018 Mini is still being sold over 4 years later also. Apple is in a desperate hurray to stop selling x86 Macs? Doesn't look like it. A M1 Pro Mini would have been how hard to do? Not very hard at all.
Will Apple keep Rosetta 2 around for 20 years? Probably not. When the last Intel Mac goes on the Vintage/Obsolete list and macOS on Intel stops, then keeping Rosetta 2 around doesn't make much sense. Dumping it before the Intel Mac's get de-support to try to 'whip' developers/users across to the other side onto Apple Silicon is very dubious. More than likely chase off just as many folks off the platform as move the over with that kind of very heavy-handed tactic.
Is Apple going to dump Intel Macs faster than Vintage/Obsolete countdown clock? On average probably not. Apple is tossing Intel systems onto the list in the 'minimal' 5 year countdown after end of sales ( extreme corner case Mac Pro 2013 aside given its Rip van Winkle upgrade problems. ). Apple needs to get to the point though were they stop selling 'new' Intel Macs though so that the countdown clock is running on all of the Intel Macs. At that point, Rosetta 2's days are 'numbered'. [ The 2018 Mini and 2019 Mac Pro likely will not stop the 'clock' from starting past 2023 though even if they are sold through the end of the year. Protection by 'Rip van Winkle' paced updates isn't going to do much to extend their respective Vintage/Obsolete dates. ]
