I appreciate your passion for privacy-respecting technology and your clarification. You make good points about the nuances of privacy-preserving techniques. However, I think we can separate two distinct issues:

1. The technical excellence of Apple's privacy protections (which you've explained well and seem robust)

2. The ethical question of enabling data transmission by default

Even with best-in-class privacy protections, the principle of user agency matters. A simplified prompt like "This feature will analyze your photos locally and send secure, anonymized data to Apple's servers to enable better search" would give users the basic choice while being technically accurate. The technical sophistication of the privacy measures, while commendable, doesn't override the need for informed consent.