Well, this just about confirms the worst nightmares I've had about hardware-based TPM. This "Owner" concept in particular rubs me the wrong way, it just seems antithetical to the idea of general computing.
I like the idea that should anyone be foolish enough to steal my MacBook, not only will they not be able to get my data, they won’t even be able to get much useful value out of the purloined goods.
Rarely are anti-features sold to unsuspecting users without having some positives to explain their existence.
Uhh, got a citation on that?
There’s more to be found on this new-fangled internet search engine called Google. You should try it: https://www.google.com/
I've had this happen to three people I know. Works like this: they contact you via your contacts, pretending to be apple care specialists, ship a link, then social engineer you into entering credentials, then they disappear.
(I don't really know how they get to contacts, but this was the case in all three instances)
Story was, this girl from Italy bought my phone on ebay but then saw my message and then took it to the Apple store. Someone from the apple store would contact me to arrange recovery of my stolen phone.
Couple hours later I got a message from another number asking for me to log in to my iCloud account and arrange an appointment using this link. Opened the link and about to type my details in then I saw the domain wasn't quite right. Looked into it, realised it was a phishing attempted and bailed on that.
I know they can't access the phone whilst it's still on my iCloud account so it will remain there, in lost mode, until the heat death of the universe.