Earlier quoted context omitted.
As Signal are doing here, they could have refused to do business (at least, with iCloud) in that country. That's a far bigger pushback than simply capitulating to removing a relatively unknown feature. To be clear, if they did this and the UK gov called their bluff, it'd affect me personally, but I'd rather that than swinging open the backdoors
You believe that the Apple Board of Directors would allow their CEO to do that? Who do you think would make that decision?
If it's the board that makes that decision, it's the board that holds responsibility for it. Nobody said anything about a specific person at Apple doing anything, just Apple as a company.
Would they? Of course not, but the question was what else could they do, and this is something they could (and if their fundamental motive wasn't purely profit above all else, perhaps should) do.