IMO it isn't that hard to crack a DRM system. My understanding is that most of the protections are legal, not technical, as in, if you do it, they'll sue the hell out of you and win.
And maybe going to platforms where the whole hardware is specialized is not what most people have in mind when they think DRM but the basic building blocks are similar. Microsoft's "Guarding Against Physical Attacks: The Xbox One Story" talk is also one of the few examples I know of where a manufacturer explains how they implemented such a system. [1]
[1] https://www.platformsecuritysummit.com/2019/speaker/chen/
But then video game consoles are special. They were always these closed, tightly-controlled ecosystems. General-purpose devices, like phones and computers, typically lack this kind of integration between their components. Yes, there's ARM TrustZone, and that's about it. Thankfully. And I'm not aware of anything similar on x86 PCs (besides the Apple T2, which was recently compromised).
The compromise of Apple's T2 chip was significantly overstated.
- How does the program making use of it make sure it's not been patched so the code that's supposed to run in the enclave runs without one?
- How does it know it's not being run on an emulated CPU or in a VM? And that those checks haven't been patched out, too?
- How does it make sure the OS is cooperating? I assume there is some cooperation required from the kernel at least.