"Sibling comments point out (and I believe, corrections are welcome) that all that theater is still no protection against Apple themselves, should they want to subvert the system in an organized way. They're still fully in control."

It stands to reason that that control is a prerequisite for "security".

Apple does not delegate its own "security" to someone else, a "steward". Hmmm.

Yet it expects computer users to delegate control to Apple.

Apple is not alone in this regard. It's common for "Big Tech", "security researchers" and HN commenters to advocate for the computer user to delegate control to someone else.