Apple is making better hardware than ever. Like your iPad, devices get at least 5 years of updates and will generally run faster every year. Like you said the biggest noticeable difference is in the battery, but this is obviously a much harder problem to solve.
Governments can only be trusted when any given individual can be trusted. I understand that Norway’s current government is one of the most accountable and transparent in the world so the damage a given individual can do is limited, but that entails trusting all future governments.