> Apple used to be about insane polish.

I think that's mostly a brand narrative/myth. MacOS has always had warts at any given time.

No kidding. I grew up loving Macs in general, but despite some people's rose-tinted views of classic macOS in the 80's and 90's, I always had uncontrollable pangs of stabbiness every time I had to do anything in the cluttered, clunky, and tiny interface of Chooser.