If you have to rely on companies’ good conscience long term you will be lost and abandoned. As such individual acts of ethical behavior are maybe nice but not really very important or meaningful.
It’s much better if companies are structured in such a way that their own self-interest aligns closely with the self-interest of society at large.
Such a match will never be perfect, but if it works it’s quite nice.
I would argue that Apple is at least in some ways structured so that its own self-interest regarding privacy results in positive privacy conscious outcomes for everyone.
It’s of course good to know that generally speaking companies will always act in self-interest but if self-interest leads to positive outcomes then that’s much more stable and longer-lasting than some CEO acting out of the goodness of their heart. That’s fickle and can just disappear any second.