> credit to Apple to achieving this, and I don't mean this ironically. They must be doing something right to gather such a following
Credit in a disgusting kind of way yes. A skill you can only admire abstractly.
This kind of thing has been going on for well over a decade now, the reality distortion field that Jobs left behind is very real... It's China level of denialism, pretty sure Apple's internal media control slogan is "never admit fault, deny everything, at all cost" - even big fat class action cost, because that's cheaper than breaking the delusion of the pretty, perfect device with a massive markup.
Once you've been burned once and they disrespect your intelligence you abandon them if you have any sense... but to be fair to others, some people become entrenched in the ecosystem and effectively have lockin, many of those poor souls do what any human does to protect their sanity in an impossible scenario, they lie to themselves to justify the economic and emotional cost to them - which ironically helps sustain the delusion for everyone else. Although maybe the single benefit of the big apps turning everything into a cloud subscription is that it reduces this somewhat.
But everyone has limits, I'm convinced there is a critical mass Apple will disenchant where the illusion will finally be broken for everyone and they burn their image. Since the company is well and truly into the milking stage I'm sure this will happen sooner than later - Investors have limited life spans even if companies do not.