If they built a version without cameras for the small subset of people who don’t even want a camera for FaceTime/video conferencing, chances are it would be more expensive than what you paid now. Apple would have to make separate backplanes, boxes, marketing material, etc, would have to create a separate iOS release (they couldn’t ship a camera app with the system, for example, and would have to change the UI that allows picking a photo from either storage or camera.
I guess it also would break many apps. I don’t think there ever was an iOS device without a camera, so nobody is checking for its presence.
For example, your banking app that wants you to take a photo of a QR code for 2FA would break.
There’s a huge chasm between no camera and pouring huge amounts of R&D into shipping a cutting edge camera every year and marketing entirely around that. I’m not sure how you jumped from my post to “a version without cameras”, as I did say I take a nonzero number of photos (mostly utility shots). One hell of a straw man.
I guess it also would break many apps. I don’t think there ever was an iOS device without a camera, so nobody is checking for its presence.
For example, your banking app that wants you to take a photo of a QR code for 2FA would break.