Several days later and we still don’t have an answer to this. Maybe this is pessimistic of me, but I suspect this is because we’re not going to be happy with the answer and they’re trying to figure out how to handle the communication.
I suspect the answer is that yes, this does give Apple the right to sue people who use optional chaining in unrelated programming languages, regardless of their intent to do so.
For reimplementations of Swift you could argue that they’re a “derivative work” and as such the Apache license allows use of the patent, but it’s very much a stretch to claim that for the case of completely separate languages.
If Apple genuinely intends to use this only for defensive purposes, or as counter-suits against patent trolls, then they should put it under something like Twitter’s Innovator’s Patent Agreement, something that legally enforces the idea of only using the patent for defensive purposes.
I’m still interested in hearing the official answer if possible, but I’d rather it be direct about these concerns and not beat around the bush.