Perhaps Apple doesn't log your hardware UUID + IP. You'll have to take their word for it.
But there's even less guarantee that the government doesn't log that information.
After all, Apple dropped plans of implementing E2E encryption of iCloud backups after the FBI asked them [1]. So "Apple doesn't retain that info" might boil down to semantics since it might be allowing someone else to do it.
Apple had at least a partial implementation of e2e backup that was resilient to users losing their passwords, via something like friends-and-family secret sharing to perform data recovery.
The implementation was scrapped.
There are ways of solving these problems, throwing up hands and saying "it can't be done anyway" is silly. Apple has done a lot of things that couldn't be done: a computer without a floppy or serial ports, a phone without a keyboard, a headset without cables between your ears.
Building the iPhone was difficult. Building APNS and iCloud was difficult. Building the App Store was difficult. Building the Apple Watch was fucking difficult. Building the Ax line of mobile chips was difficult. Building the M1 was difficult. Don't forget about airpods, homepods, and all the other mindbendingly hard shit Apple does all the time now.
Apple does insane technical achievements on a regular basis. Secret sharing for e2e backups is well within their capabilities. Google even managed to e2e encrypt Android backups.
The problem is that Apple serves at the pleasure of the US military intelligence apparatus, and they know it.
It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
But there's even less guarantee that the government doesn't log that information.
After all, Apple dropped plans of implementing E2E encryption of iCloud backups after the FBI asked them [1]. So "Apple doesn't retain that info" might boil down to semantics since it might be allowing someone else to do it.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/21/apple-dropped-plan-for-encry...