In some cases in some juristictions, a bona fide purchaser can become the legal owner of stolen property (if they did not know it was stolen). The original owner can seek repayment from anyone involved in selling the item--even if they did not know it was stolen, or sold it after buying it--but sometimes they cannot take the item from the person who currently holds it.
For example, if the victim has their kindle stolen by a thief, and the thief sells it to an electronics store that buys items, and the store sells it to a customer, then (depending on jurisdictions, ect..) the customer is the legal owner of the item. The victim can go after the thief for the market value of the item. Or they can go after the store if they can prove that it sold their item, even if the store didn't know that it was stolen. In this case, the victim no longer has legal claim to the kindle, and has no legal authority to authorize Amazon to do anything to it.
With these complexities, and especially with items moving across jurisdictions, no manufacturer can ever be sure that the original owner is still the legal owner, and able to authorize bricking a device. The only option they have is to do nothing unless ordered by a court.
Apple's phone home is different because it is performing an action that was initiated by the owner while they were the legal owner. It would be a different story if they actively took action against a device after it left the possession of the victim.