You say nothing is free, but Amazon, Discord, Dropbox, Facebook, GitHub, Google, Instagram, Microsoft, Paypal, Reddit, Slack, Steam, TikTok, Twitter etc all offer it for free.
Plus, it's not for the dev, it's for the users of the website.
>When you use Sign in with Apple on Safari, Apple sees when you sign in to a website so that Apple can authenticate your sign in, but Apple does not retain a history of what websites you sign in to or when you use Sign in with Apple.
Lying would make money. Apple likes money. Apple has a lot of money. Many other companies that were in positions similar to Apple have been caught lying. The reason for that was money.
Plus, it's not for the dev, it's for the users of the website.