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You're talking about a secure hardware element to ensure that the algorithm can't be exfiltrated and the dates brute forced against it. If you have a secure element that knows what time it really is, so you can't lie to it, just have it withhold the key until the specified date.

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Yes, and no, assuming secure hardware element is not possible. An encrypted log file can be made that keeps track of time. If a leap is detected than the program will shred the data. The user can be warned of this and decide not to risk brute force.

Without secure hardware, what stops me from keeping a backup and restoring it every time the data is "shredded"? If you have no hardware element there's nothing that can stop me from, say, spinning up 10000 VMs to make 10000 simultaneous attempts.

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