Apple fanboy here. I have a MacBook Air, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. I also use iCloud and iCloud email.
As of yesterday I have a Ubuntu desktop machine and all my data has been migrated. All iCloud storage and email has been disabled and forwarded. All my devices will be disposed of over the next few weeks.
You are not a true zealot if you quit so easily

This is too far and since this they have been pushing internal memos doubling down on this being a good idea and stating that people are misunderstanding it. They are not. I live in the UK which is a large surveillance state. This can and will be leveraged. Apples ecosystem was previously “the least bad” for privacy but now they choose to build in feature which make it by far the worst while pushing arrogant misinformation about the potential uses under secondary mandates. As someone said on HN: don’t shit in my hand and call it chocolate.
You are right about the clear path for escalation, but they are technically right too and it's a classic PR trick. People never understand shit and I'm sure there is a ton of nonsense conspiracy theories in circulation out there, so their best bet to detract from legitimate criticism is to concentrate on debunking the bullshit.
Everybody is doing it that way and it works

I suspect that some men in black suits and/or high level politicians were involved, given Apple's former public stance on user privacy. Today it's pedophiles, tomorrow it's terrorists, 10 years down the line and it's 24/7 video streaming to help catch pickpocketers in public transport.
As for the means of pressure, well, remember that the US is a country where you can be liable for hot coffee being hot. And the same one which somehow managed to bust The Pirate Bay, Megaupload and Julian Assange even in foreign jurisdictions. I'm sure that aiding in trafficking of child pornography can be problematic too. What if Apple was found not to do enough to stop it by refusing to implement common sense, noninvasive, privacy-preserving countermeasures?
At any rate, knowing typical Apple customers, I doubt that the feature was demanded by them.
As for the sexting filter for kids, it’s kinda strange to me, insofar as I don’t really believe in empowering helicopter parents.
Thank you, Apple fanboy, for never failing to deliver
