The average consumer thinks it is their god-given right to steal music, and Apple knows not to go into a fight they can't win.
As I recall, Apple went DRM free because they wanted to and it was good for consumers. DRM makes for more theft, not less. They were the only distributor large enough to convince the music labels to go along. I'm still sad no one did that for movies.
Back then, Apple was a hardware/software company, not a media company. In recent years they seem to have moved into being more of a media company with Apple Music, the streaming service, so their stance may not be the same today.