GNU, or more properly the FSF, is a non-profit foundation, based on ethical/political ideals. Apple is a private company that maximises revenue and shareholder value. It is true that Apple's stance on privacy is currently better than Facebook, Google et al.,(#) but that has nothing to do with high-minded ideals and everything with it being a marketing benefit for a company that, unlike Google and FB, doesn't maintain power through harvesting user data but by maintaining a tight grip on their ecosystem. The moment that privacy won't sell anymore, Apple will stop caring about it. By contrast, Richard Stallman will probably advocate for user rights until the day he dies, even if nobody should listen to him.

I didn't feel I needed to point this out, but I don't even have to like Richard Stallman to find it almost insulting to compare his passion for fighting in what he truly believes in with the highest-valued company in the world trying to protect their market share at all costs.

> Don’t just grump that “Apple bad”, that’s low quality posting.

It's not "Apple bad", it's "unregulated big tech bad", that includes Apple just as much as Facebook, Amazon, Google, and possibly Epic, although I really don't care about them.

(#) But still nowhere near the level of privacy you can have on e.g. a Linux system running only free software. Apple's privacy track record is good compared to other predatory companies, not necessarily on its own.