No, its a consequence of increased security and the inconvenience of have to sign out and create a new account when reselling the phone was an acceptable compromise, rather than an intended ‘bonus’ side effect. A lot of times companies do do that, but this wasn’t one off them.
This was your friend’s fault, and yours to trade cash before understanding how the system worked.
I don’t know what part of the world you grew up in, but that hasn’t been my experience at all. All the women I know have been brought up to know this is the old way, and any man who thinks along those lines is a man to avoid.