The fact so many technical people believe that security and freedom are mutually exclusive, and pay for that lie, is proof the Apple propaganda is working exactly as intended.

It's not that secure anyway, as evidenced by the multiple 1-click exploits going around on X this week.

It would be. You would have more eyeballs if you had an open bootloader instead of this program they're offering.

How do we know it is, besides apple marketing?

Given how many high profile politicians, journalists and businessmen have gotten their phones hacked, the iPhone is not unhackable.

Why not? In the default locked state it's just as secure as before, and unlocking it would require both physical access and your Apple ID.

By definition, it could be more secure if people actually would be able to inspect it. Is it regardless the most secure? Hard to say. GrapheneOS is quite secure, probably more.