You could, but it seems more likely that a mega corporation gave up on a huge market because it failed to succeed there rather than moral principles. It's not like Apple has showed a lot of moral standing when dealing with the CCP, or isn't ruthlessly crushing competition when it gets the chance.

I have a friend who knows Apple's head of user privacy. He vouches that the guy is deeply serious about security/privacy.

Between that and Apple's principled stance against the FBI, I'm inclined to believe that at that time, they were making principled choices out of a real concern for user privacy.

I suspect this time around they have a real concern for dealing with the growing child exploitation/abuse problem, but failed to prioritize system design principles in their zeal to pursue positive change in the world.

I don't envy them: in their position, they have an incredible amount of pressure and the stakes are incredibly high.

May cool heads and rational, principled thinking prevail.

The focus on privacy was new and only after their focus on advertising failed.