I think it's sad that a newer iPhone 12 mini running iOS 18.1 connected to Xcode 16.1 without problems.

Isn't it funny - or maybe ridiculous - that when I express exactly what I feel about this, Apple substitutes it with "********"....

And it seems very dishonest, that Xcode is just eternally saying "iPhone is busy: Preparing iPhone".... That's bullshit....

CORRECTION!: It worked! The iPhone with iOS 14.6 is no longer "(unsupported OS version)" in my Xcode 12.4 on my Catalina MacBook 2012.