Yes, IMO their business model is more accurately described as “gilded cages/jails” than just general “gilded/good-appearing stuff”. They deeply care about the strength of their DRM — including at the expense of end-user security, eg. you can’t access the internet through the Tor browser installed the normal macOS way without macOS broadcasting that you used Tor Project products to Apple’s DRM servers.¹
> They are pretty serious about trying to prevent data exfiltration from locked iOS devices as well.
They definitely care about the appearance of trying to prevent that exfiltrating (they don’t publicly appear to help the FBI do it), but they don’t try hard enough to actually prevent it (including in situations were preventing exfiltration seems to have been proven possible, see nearby comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26667141).
¹Edit: ocsp.apple.com, enabling targeting of the people who need or want security the most.
To the people downvoting: I’m trying to make an evidence based refutation of the less supported speculation/assertions in the parent post. If you have counter-evidence or any reason to downvote other than fanboyism, please explain it so we or I can learn.