I would almost guarantee you that the general public (as well as tech people, judging by the comments I've seen here) has no idea how Apple is different from everyone else when it comes to privacy/security, despite their attempts to talk about it wherever possible. It's simply too abstract and only reveals itself in acute ways when these breaches happen.
I disagree and want to note a worrying the - It's only different on HN where Apple seems to get a free pass and its security foibles tend to be forgotten or simply ignored. We may like to present ourselves as impartial but we're an echo chamber like many other online communities.
Eh, the good publicity and the fact that it would fuck with google are probably worth it.