Did you actually read the article you linked? It says that the court order was to require Apple to make a new version of iOS (which the writer elegantly called “FBiOS”) and install it so that the government can brute-force the password. So Apple cannot provide the encryption key and is being ordered to invent new software to make it easy for the government to hack, just like the article you linked says.
Reading comprehension is your friend...
Yes, I read it, and I expect I understand it better than you do. You are characterizing this " Make a new version of IOs" as some Manhattan project level of difficulty.
It is just as likely to take fifteen minutes from the guy who wrote the original code.
I regard this effort by Apple to portray this as a hugely difficult and Herculean task is just like OJ Simpson trying on the bloody glove. He doesn't want to do it, so he makes it look like it is impossible for him to do it.
I think Apple can update their firmware quite easily. I think it wouldn't take their programers much time at all, but if they do it, they let the entire world know it can be done, and there goes one of their marketing schemes.
I think they are balking on doing it to this phone because it was used by a Muslim Terrorist. I think they want to avoid offending Muslims in General, and Terrorists in particular, and that their reluctance has not a D@mned thing to do with their capabilities, and everything to do with their desire not to do it.