JohnnyCanadian

I appreciate your point of view and I admit I'm an "engineering first" sort of person; pragmatism and functional design rule the roost for me.  I still have my first iPad 1 (64GB model!) as a nostalgia piece and although the UI has aged, it's surprising just how smoothly it works: the UX is still incredibly intuitive.  It really doesn't feel like an old device, despite being stuck with iOS 5.

I still see the original iPhone as being one of the most important consumer electronic devices ever created and although many criticized the iPad when it was released ("it's just a big iPod touch") it resonated with me immediately.  As I am back in Canada the first sanctioned iPhone available to me was the 3G and I was smitten. I'd never experienced such a beautifully thought out product (even if backups could take 1/2 hour in those early days).  I had some experience developing on early releases of PalmOS and PocketPC systems as well as early universal mobile efforts (specifically WAP) and the iPhone wasn't just a generation ahead, it was jaw-dropping.  I still watch the original iPhone keynote once in a while as it was ... perfect.  I had every version of the iPhone up to and including the 7+ but then I played with a Pixel XL (revision 1) and I sincerely hope it lasts a while because it's almost the perfect no-compromise phone.

I don't get the warm and fuzzy feeling from Apple products any longer: they've become ... I'd like to say "iterative" or "evolutionary" but in some cases they've gone backwards.  iPhone performance, especially in the latest models simply cannot be beat, but I still don't agree with removing the 3.5mm headphone jack or the fingerprint sensor on the X.  Siri has stagnated for a significant length of time; there's simply no comparison to Google Assistant. The iMac Pro offers pretty decent performance but I wouldn't dare try to upgrade even something as simple as RAM, and that disqualifies it as a true workstation.  I'm an independent developer and I'm simply not spending $6k every two years for a new machine just because I'm looking for a capacity or performance boost.  A perfect example of "new Apple" problems is the butterfly keyboard: I don't want a portable that has keyboard issues when exposed to even the smallest quantity of particulate.  I've got a ten year old Dell M6400 "Precision Workstation" and it still works flawlessly (with a very simple SSD swap) despite some fairly rough roadwork and a tumble off of a truck tailgate, and my 1950X-based primary workstation should give me a solid ten years with regular updates and maintenance.

I get it, Apple products remain very popular and are constantly being aped, as you say, but that doesn't mean they're the best in class any longer.

Anyway, rant over.  I respect your choice of ecosystem but MacOS / iOS just don't have the productivity plus-delta that they used to, at least for my needs. I remain interested in Apple's progress and hope to see a return to a Snow-Leopard-like environment where everything worked, and worked incredibly well.  Maybe I'm just getting old.  :-)