Apple Planning Switch to Randomized Serial Numbers for Future Products Starting in 'Early 2021'
Like many things Apple does, this appears to be motivated solely by greed.
They are trying to entirely shutdown the independent repair shops - you know, the ones that can replace a screen during your lunch hour, as opposed to Apples however long (at however much). If you can't figure out what version something is, how will you get the right part? Of course they could obviate this by making a serial number lookup publicly available. Anybody want to take bets on that being done ?