>> because actually methodically studying users costs money.

you mean "actually methodically studying users is boring and requires competence"

these people only care about making pretty pictures, they dont care about the actual effort to deliver a good product.

It’s time and labor intensive and you generally need to compensate focus groups for their time. Sometimes that overlaps with laziness or apathy, but who hasn’t worked on something and been told the business can’t afford the time or money to do it right?