This is far from specific to Apple.

When I first saw your name, a few decades ago, it was because I was interested in HCI and human factors engineering.

Today, my impression is that the field of HCI has mostly disappeared. Most people who might have been interested in HCI are now studying and practicing UX instead.

In UX, the designer/engineer in practice is usually directed by the goals of the party who decides how the thing will work, rather than the goals of the party using the thing.

There are some intellectual elements to UX practice (e.g., aesthetics, fashions, A/B testing, and dark patterns). But I wonder whether the transition from HCI to UX means that the field is not only perversely anti-user, but also losing the intellectual and/or institutional capacity to be user-oriented on occasions that they want to be?