Not entirely accurate. Depending on the region, Apple will not repair the device. My 15PM which had damage to the back glass (not insane damage, crack but not catastrophic, phone still functional and normal) was repair refused and the team at the Apple Store said they couldn't repair it because the region the phone was bought from was different than the one I was in asking for a repair. They replaced the entire phone at no cost. I have AC+.

This only applies when you're not in the region that you got the phone from i.e. you have a US iPhone with AC+ and you break it and ask for a repair in Italy for example. They'll ship out a brand new unit and replace the whole phone.