That is, of course, a system that exists, but, be creative, lots of ways to skin that cat. In apple's case, well, they could certainly sell a device to handle that job, basically a key fob like you probably use in your car (sometimes built into the physical key without your knowledge).
You could also use the remarkable amount of compute that most people carry around in their pockets to do this job with no additional device required (use your phone).
Not really a hard nut to crack overall.
It could sign an activation lock removal and give it to the device through the usb port.
If the HSM is lost or fails, revert to the status quo.
The common theme that keeps coming up with activation lock that Apple's customers do not understand this feature until it bites them in the wallet. Any solution would require education that these same people won't get until they're in an irrevocable situation anyway.
Find My Feature from apple.com:
> Activation Lock is designed to prevent anyone else from using or selling your device. When you enable Find My on your device, Activation Lock is turned on automatically.
> Your Apple ID and password will then be required in order to erase or reactivate it. And if someone is able to erase your device, the Hello screen will show that it’s locked, locatable, and still belongs to you.
This is not a technical problem, and you cannot solve it with a technical solution.
btw what we have today is the worse of both worlds. apple et al can tie you to a identity which you cannot use to recover your data but they can sell to advertisers or act on police requests from that profile metadata.
Is that a plan anyone is suggesting?