@oldturkey03 - thanks for your thoughts and pointers. I agree that the idea of archiving is a great one. My concern really is that a device should not have its useful life artificially limited by the software. If the apps I've always used continued to be available in the same version, I could continue to use them. I'd be happy with that. The problem is when the app stops working on my phone, especially when (as I often suspect) there is no real reason for this other than it being a nuisance for the developer to keep it available along with the newer version. Things like the Tesco app, the Costa Coffee app: these are not of critical importance, but it's annoying that I can't use them any more, and there are many others. The Bank of Scotland app may perhaps have security features iOS 12 can't support -- but does it, actually? Curiously, the Tesco Bank app still works on my phone, for now. One senses that a lot of this is just arbitrary.
The principle of the Right To Repair is excellent, but it loses its point if the device becomes effectively useless even though it has been repaired. An archive of old software that will continue to run on it would certainly help to address this.
