Agreed. Moreover, the Techrunch author is being disingenuous. The data on the 70 other devices was also "secured" behind a pin even though not encrypted. Apple built tools to extract the unencrypted data from the phones without entering a pin. Similarly, Apple could write a tool to flash this phone with a build that does not enforce the wipe rule. Just because the security Apple is helping circumvent in this case is slightly harder for an outsider to circumvent than the security they circumvented previously, that doesn't mean that it absolves Apple from being compelled to circumvent it when presented with the proper legal order.
I'm surprised that Apple has gone so political against the government here. Despite a massive amount of lobbying by the FBI, Congress has so far given the tech industry the benefit of the doubt, believing our argument that "we're just making our products as secure as we possibly can, even against ourselves." Now Apple is parroting that line even when it doesn't apply, and using it in a political PR war against the government. How do you think Congress will see that? Apple has stepped off of the high-ground and into the battlefield.
