I don't get if your comment is sarcastic or not. If it is, I don't see why it would be such a huge problem. It's a quickfix and if I were him, and in a rush to fix the problem, I would do that. I'm personally changing my phone number every year and it's never been a burden.
It wasn't sarcastic I was agreeing with you. I guess other people thought I was being sarcastic too because you got downvoted and I didn't. I don't know, seems kind of obvious. I use google voice, I never have to change my number when switching phones. I don't know how that would impact imessage. I wouldn't ever use such a service baked into the phone by the phone maker.
