This is something which I have had to explain to several civil society organisations in the past year; the general thinking is “it’s okay for $PLATFORM to break $SPECIFIC_LAW if I personally consider [that law] to be illiberal & misconceived.”

But…

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The truth is: you expect platforms to obey the law, and if they don’t obey the law then you will have a problem with them; so if you are shouting at Apple for not overtly flouting British law, for not going far enough, you are part of the problem: you are demanding that platforms should get to pick and choose which laws to break.

Instead you ought to applaud platforms which sabotagingly obey the spirit if not the letter of the law, and which further overtly pressure and lobby against illiberal and misconceived legislation. You have to see the value that is on offer, and you should welcome the value that is delivered.

From each, according to their ability; this is precisely what Apple has done.

Disclosure: I am a lifetime Android user and I passionately hate both iOS and the iPhone platform, although I do have a long history with macOS as well as Linux and Solaris; however Apple is doing strategically exactly the right thing from the perspective of civil liberties.