The iPad Air as well as the plain old iPad had also gotten standard USB C ports with zero restrictions before this particular conspiracy theory became popular.
If the iPhone were to disappear tomorrow and Apple were banned from ever making phones, Apple's moat would most likely collapse.
If the iPad went away tomorrow, Apple would just lose billions or tens of billions of dollars in revenue and not much else would change.
The iPad Air as well as the plain old iPad had also gotten standard USB C ports with zero restrictions before this particular conspiracy theory became popular.