I think the reality is that it is 3nm, but they changed the internal frame and surface area internally so much that they couldn't move as much heat out as they have in previous designs, and they either did not core (more likely) or they didn't know (impossible, IMO, not at their scale, with the amount of testing that goes into these things).
They'll let this all blow over (sadly, it will, and we'll all just have to accept this as "normal"), and then next year, we'll get sold an "amazing" new design that "radically innovates on thermal management in ways that only Apple can engineer" and have really well produced, incredible videos during a Keynote describing this amazing new innovation that will let me use iPhone 16 Pro Max Ultra Uber Amazing Edition at room temperature than to its new Unobtanium (which is just going back to the old Aluminum) Frame and A18 Ultra SoC, available for Pre Order next week!
Watch, it'll happen. They did it with the keyboards on the MBP. They switched to some thin/horrible design for a few years, had a terrible warranty problem (even a class action?) over it, and then announced a "new amazing" keyboard design that, well, was just the old keyboard design with some small tweaks and called it the greatest thing ever.
Love Apple products for the most part. Hate how self-important they are, and, worse, how they are incapable of admitting they messed up on a design and use the reality distortion field to then somehow make it the user's problem and then parlay that into a "feature" in the next release rather than just make it right (read: redesign it, release a mid cycle update, and give me a free hardware swap when you fix it as well as a credit for iCloud for the year for my trouble). Nah, rather than actually fix what they screwed up, they'll suggest it's the user's problem and the fix is a feature you should be excited for, and worse, pay for.
Remember, you were holding it wrong, too (
https://www.wired.com/2010/06/iphone-4-holding-it-wrong/)!
