It's just another barrier. With enough hassle, people will move to stealing other easier things. When find my was released, phone theft went down massively. Not every criminal wants to make the jump from just grabbing a phone off the table, to having an RF blocking bag, transporting to an RF proof room, and then pulling the phone to bits to sell for pennies since the parts don't work properly when swapped in to another phone.
sudosysgen|4 years ago
For a while now to steal a phone you needed a fence. The fence will just give you a metallised bag and you'll put the phone in it. It's not really more complicated than turning off the phone as thieves already do.
As for the software features, they've always been and will always be bypassable. People figure out how to defeat iCloud Lock, how to change ESN/IMEI/IMSI already. It's easily a 30 million dollar market, people will continue to figure it out.