The only reason I have no problems with this one device is that it was his employer’s phone. It is not your privacy if your employer is paying for it.
Then the employer can crack it. Like you said, it’s the employer’s phone, not Apple’s.
They government wants to force apple to write a program and engineer a system to overcome the security features. That’s like getting a warrant to search a safe and demanding the company who built it come help you break in.
Grey area. Lots of people pay part of the bill of a company smartphone.