> If they refuse to accept the responsibility that comes with owning the keys, which, basically comes down to helping the customer when they can authenticate him, they should not own the key at all.
Apple has a process to remove Activation Lock with proof of purchase documentation:
It doesn't matter why it failed. Apple decided not to fulfill their responsibility in this case, for whatever reason, so I agree with the GP that Apple should not be trusted with the key.
Yes, because clearly whatever someone said in an HN comment is the full story and nobody would ever lie or distort to reap karma among a community of knee-jerk Apple-haters.
"Assume good faith." "Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
The process works. I once got a MacBook issued from work that didn't have DEP or any MDM, so I did enroll it in Find My / Activation Lock. When I returned it I thought I had removed the lock, but there's a bit of a misleading option to remove a device (until it checks in again) from Find My that doesn't disable the lock. So work tried to contact me through a colleague, failed, and when I called back they already had the Apple reseller do it for them.
Apple has a process to remove Activation Lock with proof of purchase documentation:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201441
I don't know why the process failed for the OP.