That's the problem with anecdotes... they only represent your very narrow window of experience while ignoring literally every other person on the planet.
> but I don't know a single person that wanted a Windows phone
I only represent a single person, and I make no claims about anyone else!
...no apps. Windows Mobile just couldn't attract quality developers to its platform. After witnessing that - I fully understood why Android went with Java (the language): there was already a deep pool of seasoned Java developers.
For instance, Apple forced people to write iPhone apps in Objective-C for years and nobody avoided the platform because of that, even buying Macs and paying 99 dollars a year for the privilege of writing and selling iOS apps.
>That's the problem with anecdotes
I'm not saying those problems affected Windows phone, but that's the association customers have with Windows as a brand due to decades of facing those problems with desktop Windows.