The problem with "environmentally responsible" planned obsolescence is that it's never environmentally responsible to throw out what would otherwise be a functional device but for the fact that it was made to break down on a specific timetable. The three Rs are "reduce, reuse, recycle", not "recycle, recycle, recycle". Making the product degrade prematurely means you can't reuse, and by proxy, having to buy a new one means you're not reducing.

Degradable devices sounds like the sort of thing intended to assuage the consciences of very rich people who buy the newest iPhone every year.