I tip my cap to them if they've moved out of that model, though I still question the idea that they don't have access to it, especially if this person was backing his stuff up to the iCloud. But I do agree wholeheartedly that they shouldn't be compelled to write a back a back door into their phone. That's bad for business, and to your point, trust is really hard to win back.
To Pseudo's point though, if there's a subpoena, they should be providing whatever they do have... now if they don't have it, I'm in agreement that the FBI is SOL at that point... Apple should give them whatever they have and that's pretty much the point... but yeah, I don't like that precedent. At the end of the day, there will be a back door in every device and the government will have the key, and it won't take a subpoena to get it. The government has a history with those types of activities... and like you said, trust is really hard to win back. I don't trust them one bit to not abuse that right because they've shown time and time again that they will.