Your point is solid, but that level of polish on Apple products is only skin deep. For example, there are several missing features and issues with MacOS that have gone unaddressed for years.

Window edge snapping is incredibly frustrating. Linux desktops and Microsoft Windows have had proper window snapping support for decades.
The app uninstall process is inconsistent, with some apps remaining contained in the .app folder while others spill out all over the system.
The recovery mode process for resetting an Intel-based Mac is incredibly tedious and time consuming.

However, MacOS isn’t the only Apple product with issues.

WatchOS has an inconsistent and difficult to navigate UI. The bubble menu is inconsistent and difficult to navigate, and the list view requires that you sort by alphabetical when a “recently used” sort would be significantly more efficient.
IOS doesn’t allow sideloading apps.
TVOS is filled with ads for Apple’s premium services like AppleTV+
IOS home screen icons cannot have blank space and must instead tile to the top of the screen.
Methods for going back to what was previously onscreen are inconsistent in IOS.
IOS browsers are required to use mobile Safari’s web engine.

However, this isn’t to say that Apple products are bad, simply to remind you that they do have flaws. Based on your wording of “bootleg os’s” I can’t quite tell what your referring to. Windows is the only OS I’m aware of other than MacOS that has heavy advertising, but your phrasing seems to place it in a different category altogether. Although if you are looking for a new OS to try I highly recommend looking into the many Linux distributions available. I recommend Linux Mint to beginners, since it is generally the simplest to use.

[–] snowe@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am not who you were talking to, but:

Window edge snapping is incredibly frustrating. Linux desktops and Microsoft Windows have had proper window snapping support for decades.

Completely agree, if you want a good solution though, don’t use any of those window managers that people always list for Mac like magnet, rectangle, whatever other junk is being sold. Use hammerspoon. Not only will you get better window management than even Linux (yes, I’m still yet to find a solution like it for Linux), you’ll also get tons of other things like easy jumping to apps, automation capabilities that would be very hard to do in Automator, etc. It’s definitely the best app on Mac by far. Oh and it’s open source and free.

The app uninstall process is inconsistent, with some apps remaining contained in the .app folder while others spill out all over the system

Isn’t this the fault of the app though? Apps that need to do stuff outside of the bounds of a regular app install shit elsewhere. I do hate that though. Not really sure it’s better on Linux though. If you install using apt or yum or whatever then sure, but plenty of other apps don’t install that way and they can leave junk all over the place too.

The recovery mode process for resetting an Intel-based Mac is incredibly tedious and time consuming

A lot of stuff on the Intel macs are terrible lol.

WatchOS has an inconsistent and difficult to navigate UI. The bubble menu is inconsistent and difficult to navigate, and the list view requires that you sort by alphabetical when a “recently used” sort would be significantly more efficient.

Agreed, but you can also just see recent apps by double tapping the button on the side. You don’t need to go to the app list at all.

IOS doesn’t allow sideloading apps.

Very annoying

TVOS is filled with ads for Apple’s premium services like AppleTV+

The only place I’ve ever seen ads on TVos is literally on the Apple TV app. Where else are you seeing them?

IOS home screen icons cannot have blank space and must instead tile to the top of the screen.

This is so incredibly annoying for multiple reasons. Any time you try to move icons or folders around it makes it impossible because everything on screen reflows as you’re trying to organize. It’s fucking insane.

Methods for going back to what was previously onscreen are inconsistent in IOS.

This is the second time in a week I’ve seen someone say this. I don’t know what everyone is talking about. Can you explain more?

IOS browsers are required to use mobile Safari’s web engine

This is also super annoying.

[–] narwhalperson@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Answering your question on the inconsistent back button, there are simply too many of them. Sometimes it is the small text link with an arrow in the top left corner, sometimes it is a built in app back button, and sometimes the text version sticks around during navigation for no reason until it is clicked accidentally and throws back to the previous app.

[–] snowe@programming.dev 1 points 1 year ago

I mean... I have several android tablets and have the exact same issue on those as well. Not sure how Android solves anything here. Except that you also get the hardware button that sometimes does absolutely nothing, or it goes back to a different location than the back button on screen.

[–] Jaxi_is_here@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

I have and do use Linux on my desktop every day I love Linux but it doesn’t compete in the video and photo editing software space in the same way as my mac does. things like final cut and the adobe suite are kinda essential for me and the open source options while very powerful and encouraging to see aren’t quite up to par.

[–] Jaxi_is_here@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

I don’t think the examples you’ve given point toward the polish being “skin deep” id argue those features themselves are skin deep. The snapping isn’t important to me as i use full screen almost exclusively, apps being a mess (sometimes) isn’t a macos thing its a dev thing and so much less of a clusterfuck than uninstalling windows programs don’t even get me started. I have never had to recover any mac so I can’t comment on that. Having software that’s different and maybe a little clunky but rock solid almost never crashes is so much more worth it than software that can be tweaked to the max but crashes more often.