That's a piss poor excuse. Never assume; at a minimum ask! I have many podcasts saved that as the OP points out, are no longer publicly available. A few are now locked behind a paywall but many others aren't available - period.
Apple always knows better. Even if you think you know what you want, you don't, actually. Because Apple knows better.
At least with Windows, Microsoft will never intentionally delete or cause user data to disappear. Bugs have happened (the one where files in the original Documents folder after relocating to a new location would be deleted was pretty bad), but it usually results in an apology, delaying further rollout of the patch and a fix for the issue. Instead of pretending "it's best for our users, they never should've put stuff there in the first place".
