Not really. Encrypted data on the drive, password protection to get in should be enough. If the password implementation is top notch it essentially is a brick to anyone not in the know — time will be of no use to them.
It's really not that hard to design a system that will become essentially a brick when the password is lost. E.g. just put some flash memory on the main processor chip that partakes in the encryption of the harddrive.
Just make those bytes point somewhere else (assuming Apple allows you to), and run a server at that location and you're done.
What is the problem?
Also, as I previously mentioned, sophisticated thieves can block traffic anywhere other than Apple by default.
Yes, that is the sales scenario for remote lockout. Its kind of lame, like "if I can't have my thing then nobody else can either and it becomes e-waste," and also depends on a crook being smart enough to realize this valuable looking thing has no resale value.
Now run out the scenario where you are the Canadian truck driver or in some other politically unpopular position and getting progressively locked out of stuff. Maybe the feds start leaning on Apple like they do to debank state-level authorized herbal commerce. Maybe some other entity gets into Apple's system and holds your computer hostage. It seems like the wrong direction for computing devices.
If your own laptop is stolen, you're no longer in physical possession of it.
So from the perspective of the laptop, some sort of interaction should brick it. What should that interaction be? It needs to happen early, before thieves have a chance to disable it. So it needs to happen before login, say. Really it needs to happen at either bootup or as soon as the laptop establishes a connection to the internet.
At which point it should... reach out to you? How? Must you own a second Apple device for that to work? Okay, let's go with that. You have an iPhone, and you use Find My to brick the laptop. So now someone can steal your phone and use it to brick your laptop? Your laptop needs to talk to your phone every time it boots up or connects to the internet?
I'm not sure you've thought this through.
It seems reasonable to me that the only entity that makes sense here is Apple. Even a savvy thief, who might block packets to anywhere unexpected--and "person's iPhone somewhere" is definitely unexpected--is going to need to let packets go to Apple, making them the only party with the means and opportunity to do this.