The problem is, say you're an iOS developer, you get no choice; you HAVE to run a Mac and be at Apple's mercy.
Firstly, it's not true that you don't get a choice. Apple still makes laptops with f-keys. And you can always plug in a 3rd party keyboard.
Secondly, an more importantly, of all the options Apple don't give you (and there are an infinite amount of them), this one is so minor. Why, other this is how you are used to it, are the important reasons for using specifically the f-keys to step through a debugger? What is wrong with any of the other keys?
I agree of course that change merely for the sake of change is not a good idea, but surely, surely we can all recognise that Apple did not make this change on whim, simply to try something different?
You can use Visual Studio on Windows to write iOS apps with Xamarin or Cordova, using a network-attached Mac solely as build server, without ever having to use it (except for updating stuff, via VNC)
The problem is, say you're an iOS developer, you get no choice; you HAVE to run a Mac and be at Apple's mercy.
Other programs usually have decent alternatives or you can customise them to suit you,