Indeed. Since Apple controls the full hardware and software stack, it's not surprising that they are making their own security chip without any of the ugly down

Indeed. Since Apple controls the full hardware and software stack, it's not surprising that they are making their own security chip without any of the ugly downsides of TPM (TPM has more complex interfaces and logic that try to cover a broader set of use cases than what Apple support). As another upside, they are also not reliant on any supplier code for the chip.