I haven't done any defending, but I reject the idea that it's a ridiculous idea to do so. I choose (almost always) to defend people on the basis of whether they are right or wrong (by some measure), emphatically not due to some expectation of return on investment because they 'care about me'. Also, no one is defending Apple because they think 'the trillion dollar company needs defending' -- they're doing it, presumably, because they just so happen to have an opinion on the matter that aligns with Apple's.