The UK government has you that way too - you are legally compelled to reveal any passcodes if ordered by a court, and you’ll stay in prison until you do. (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000)
But it at least does remove them from third party exposure (phone company, their AI, massive breaches etc), you just have to be sure your own security is good.
I think it’s the right move by Apple.
I don’t think it’s the right move by my Government to be ordering this.
Like most governments, the UK’s has a poor record on understanding technical standards (They’re still trying to implement age-restriction on porn sites, something that’s been ongoing for a decade) Backdoor or lack of encryption - both make data security impossible and make the lives of criminals a whole lot easier. We simply cannot have safe data this way.
So what’s Google doing? I assume they’re impacted by the same regulation.