Apple's software is the worst when you need to configure something. Especially on iOS. Most people tend to use the default because usually they can't find, let alone configure the settings.

I think generally their mantra is to choose sensible (though that's debatable) defaults, and minimise the ability to configure at all. Of course, that drives some people insane, and even if you generally like it, you're totally stuck if they make a choice you don't like. Same goes for hardware -- I really like macOS, but if Apple started, oh I don't know, releasing laptops with non-functional keyboards, I have nowhere else to go.

I get more frustrated by the lack of communication of activity/failure states though. So much of their software on both iOS and macOS will give you nothing more than a spinner to indicate activity, then if something goes wrong will just...fail silently. Even informing the user that something failed is despairingly rare.

> minimise the ability to configure at all

Yep. What users want is "Freedom from Choice". See also: The Paradox of Choice.

And that's one of the fundamental value propositions of the Apple brand: we have fussed the details so you don't have to.

And that approach has interesting failure modes.

Right, so one programmer says features are confusing and shouldn’t be done because they’re in the user’s face. Another says that it’s confusing to hide them.

Sense a pattern here?

Not all users are the same, is the moral of the story here.