Old passcode problem, 123456 fails. And...

I have this problem as described at https://Discussions.Apple.com/thread/7931195 and https://Discussions.Apple.com/thread/7853186 with my new (to me) iPhone 6s, sold to me in perfect fully reset and previous Apple account detached form. The 123456 solution doesn't work for me. Nor does any other approach I've tried.

Since my first Apple hand sized portable device, an early iPod Touch, I used only one previous passcode (a shorter one because, as I recall, the early iPod Touch supported only short passcodes) which I abandoned as soon as a longer passcode option arrived, as I recall about a decade ago. Since then I've used the same passcode, always, on all portable Apple devices.

So now it's 19 May 2020. Two and three years ago people were so frustrated with this problem they spewed lava on those links, obviously fed up with Apple, and yet this problem persists. And judging by Apple's lack of response the firm seems to have no interest in the matter. Wow...

Mammoth disappointment... Moving on, here's what I want: Systems which work. Actually work, reliably. Not sort of work, sometimes. And visionary or at least cogent security design with straightforward and fully consistent foundations which the masses can efficiently understand and manage. Instead I now face a security protocol which fails by asking for information which doesn't actually exist, or hasn't existed for about a decade - a security protocol which isn't just flawed, but an abject mess. Of course customers are livid...

Crime is everywhere and accelerating swiftly - I recognize that. But hodgepodge security design built upon a philosophy of the more complexity the better won't decrease crime, but rather increase criminal conduct opportunities. The more complex, the less honest users can comprehend how to accomplish anything, almost as if the philosophical foundation is "Ideal security is achieved when nobody can do anything, so we strive for that." But the reality is that increasing security complexity increases coy vulnerabilities, so increased opportunity for criminal conduct arises, while at the same time honest users are, as a practical matter, drowning in dysfunction.

So here I sit with a crippled iPhone through no fault of my own, and essentially no hope of resolution as indicated by Apple's apparent wholesale disinterest. Wonderful...

My first iPod Touch was pretty cool. It actually worked...