Would you have expressed the same comment for Google/Amazon if the Nexus or Kindle had the worst screen?
And you're saying this as an Apple customer?
Apple has never been about selling the latest and greatest hardware, they have always been about selling the hardware that works well enough to satisfy their standards.
They have always had high standards for colour accuracy, the rest of the industry has caught up and moved past them, but they will continue to ship what they think is "good enough". People like Apple because their "good enough" is usually of a very high standard.
Same thing for retina displays, Apple introduced them and did a lot of work to allow for their existence (especially in pushing Intel to develop stronger integrated GPUs, developing drivers). Now the industry has caught up and surpassed Apple in pixel density — but Apple doesn't care because they are not competing on pixel density — it's at the point where it's good enough for their products.
Apple gets those benefits of the doubt because they're one of very few companies that ships tens of millions of a single product. Your comment is also filled with intentionally obnoxious absolutes. I never said that this is the case, or surely it must be, I'm just speculating.
I'm more than willing to entertain the idea that they did it simply to keep fab costs low and margins high. Maybe if Google or Amazon delivered consistently or shipped similar numbers, people would give them the benefit of the doubt. One good generation each isn't exactly enough to build confidence.