Apple deserves every dollar and every ounce of it's success. It's detractors are proven wrong time and time again, literally every single second of every day, for the past few decades.
Their continued success isn't the result of some massive conspiracy, a fluke, or fanboyism. They make a shitload of money, because a shitload of people buy their products, regardless of the mockery and outrage of a tiny minority (often monetized) on the internet who have never really understood Apple to begin with, and never will. People confidently proclaim that every single product it releases is it's "worst ever" (which goes on to get fantastic reviews and becomes the industry standard, with design and functionality aped by everyone) and that the company is just inches away from downfall, this time. Rinse and repeat.
Meanwhile, Apple smashes records each quarter, and people like to pretend this comes easily and is no big deal. There's a reason people keep choosing Apple products while its pricing is on the upper end of the spectrum, and while it competes against the biggest companies on the planet in the most competitive industry. It's because even though their software/hardware isn't perfect, it's consistently leagues better than pretty much everything else out there. People here can mock and deny this statement all their want, but they have yet to come up with a more rational and plausible scenario for Apple's continued record-breaking success. Obviously, they're doing A LOT right, and their most controversial decisions are pretty much always geared towards the long term.
spoiler (click to show/hide)