Please, stop saying, "don't blame Apple for forgetfullness" because that does not help the situation. You might as well just close out your browser and go on with your life.
Apple makes mistakes sometimes, as do it's users. Apple is not the pinnacle of perfection, and neither are it's users. It's okay to question Apple. Smart consumers question their product's makers.
Any good user interface will allow for some 'proper' administration of a password. Only a poorly thought out interface would leave you high and dry in the event of forgetting a password.
It is apparent that Apple did not properly test this for real world usage. How do we know that? We can see that real world usage has indicated the password creation process for the backup is obviously something that gets thrown by the wayside for many users, a no brainer really. Apple should have taken that into account, and had a plan B that didn't involve people losing their data and their customers with it.
Blame Apple for using it's customers as guiniea pigs. It's okay.
Gold star for whoever happens to remember their password along with all the hundreds of others. Congratulations.