Cards with annual fees+perks is just a form of manipulating and usually why there’s far more “perks” only on point based cards as opposed to cash back cards. The idea is that you somehow how feel the valued perks offset the annual fees when you could literally take the money you save from the annual fee and spend it on the perks you actually want vs being forced to use.
Cash back is king and if Apple kept the card the same but only bumped the cash back 1% across all tiers it would be the best cash back card on the market since it would have no cap on categories, etc. additionally it’s actually money not a statement credit. Example:
Physical Card/non-Apple Pay = 2%
Apple Pay = 3%
Select Retailers (e.g. Apple, Nike) = 4%