Granted, exceptional programmers are hard to come by. But that’s because software development is exceptionally difficult, and the demand for software is exceptionally high. However, Apple has a large number of exceptionally talented programmers and spends a lot of money on finding and hiring new ones. But the talent pool is finite, and lots of other companies are also trying to hire those programmers. And some programmers don’t want to work for any company. I’m a good programmer, and I prefer to work for myself. Because as high as the ceiling goes for programmer salaries, it’s a joke compared to management.

In the view of corporations, talent exists to be exploited, just like customers.

Consumer culture is about consumption. It is not about accomplishing things. It is not about ease of use. It is not about innovation. It is about consumption. Apple makes products to consume, and consumers buy them. What those consumers do with them is only significant insofar as it encourages them to consume more. Faster consumption leads to more economic “growth” leads to more profits leads to more concentrated wealth leads to better political contributions leads to laws which better promote more consumption, in a perpetual cycle.

So, your expectation of Apple and its products is, while probably not naive, is very blinkered, if not disingenuous. You alluded to your awareness that Apple’s purpose is to get you to invest yourself (your self-image as a Mac user, your data into their proprietary systems, even into their own actual hardware in the cloud) in order to keep you in their thrall. Every corporation wants this, but computer platform manufacturers have had the most success, because of the data they control which you so closely associate with your sense of self.

Beyond that, let’s consider the ease-of-use argument more on its face. Yes, it could be better. There are thousands of ways that computers could be more transparent, more useful, more simplified (without be dumbed down as they are), with an actual learning curve instead of a pleasant valley of ease-of-use surrounded by mountains of impenetrable techno-complexity. But regardless of the shape of the technology landscape, there is no getting away from the heights of those mountains. But to take the side of the technologists, they know that the vast majority of people have no interest in scaling those mountains even on the most benign of slopes. Any slope at all will elicit anger and vitriol from the majority of people. Because people have no interest in understanding how it works, there is no motivation for technology companies to invest any time into creating a reasonable learning curve.

I am a technologist. I’ve been a Mac user since the early 1990′s, and a Mac programmer and systems specialist since late 1990′s. I have known Apple operating systems and application software (not to mention servers, networking equipment and peripherals) from the inside out. I have learned some outrageous stuff, written some very complex software, and tried to help other people understand and use software and hardware of all kinds. You can’t use it properly unless you understand it. And to understand it, you must learn it.

The only alternative to understanding computer technology is to have an assistant who understands it on your behalf. Until we have artificial software assistants which speak English and incorporate self-diagnostics on the level of the best expert systems (which won’t be cheap), that’s the lay of the land.

Fact is, however, even the work of becoming knowledgeable is severely undermined by that vicious consumption-driving circle I mentioned above. While Mac OS X from a few years ago was virtually perfect, and required only fine-tuning, such improvements would not provide Apple sufficient profit growth. It would not drive new hardware sales. So it was not a viable corporate strategy. Their hands are tied. The only course is to create more useless features to confabulate consumers and justify new cats in the OS line. They have to gut Final Cut Pro and alienate their user base with a radical new version. They have to serve their shareholders, no matter how much it requires them to ultimately hurt their customers to do it. And eventually it will backfire, and their shareholders will move on to the next thing, leaving Apple a smoking ruin.

Maybe it’s time to see the forest and stop being so fixated on the trees.