It’s not that Apple makes amazing stuff, it’s that other companies really put out barely shiny turds.
Look at the zune, the tech was fine, or so I have heard, but it looked like an ugly brick. Seriously, a regular red brick looks better, even a yellow brick does.
I have a Subaru, and while I love it, the infotainment system is garbage. Clearly there was no effort to make it look good and usable.
UX is hugely undervalued, I wonder if one of the reasons is because you don’t notice good UX, it’s not in the way, but you noticed bad UX. So good UX without a lot of marketing is invisible.