More like the reward of thinking the NSA is out there, ready to throw all its resources at the problem of decrypting some random dude's flash drive. "Better put this in an encrypted file container! On a hidden volume that's also encrypted! Then encrypt that with Bitlocker open-source platform developed by some dude which now hasn't been supported for 10 years! Then put that in a physically encrypted drive that wipes itself after 10 guesses! That'll keep these nuclear launch codes few hundred dollars safe for sure!"
There's definitely a bit of schaudenfruede watching crypto nerds reap the consequences of their insufferable crowing about how no amount of security is ever possibly good enough for those tedious pictures of your tomato garden.
But in seriousness I feel for the guy. Can't imagine what that's like, knowing a new life is inside a little flash drive, if only you could open it. Wonder what kind of physical security the Ironkey has to protect against opening it up and dumping the contents of the flash. Still encrypted presumably, but at least you get unlimited guesses. Unless it's a custom ASIC with integrated flash or something.
This is one of those times where I feel like the best solution is to call up the OEM and say "Hey, you can have $50 million of this if you can extract the contents." They'll probably think of something!