Those who can’t make sense of this are the likely the ones who don’t care for an open system, which, as you said, would be a broad majority of people.
I don't think this follows at all outside of an enthusiasts' forum where people specifically think in those terms.
Ask people whether they'd like their non-Apple wireless headphones to connect easily to their device, to have a quick and easy way to exchange files with their Windows PC or to purchase ebooks in the Kindle app and I wouldn't expect broad support for a closed system.
I'm sure you'll find examples that will demonstrate the opposite, hence my original point about contradictory answers.
All I'm saying is that I am just not convinced a lot of people specifically buy Apple products because they are a closed ecosystem. They will buy products for reasons that flow from that, ie how well things work together, but they will also buy despite of it or simply for reasons that have nothing to do with any of that. My wife, for example, has an iPhone because I have an iPhone and she wanted the same thing because she thinks it's easier, but there's absolutely no reason for that.
That purchasing decision may otherwise be totally unimportant, but it still has effects on which products and services people (can) use, simply because they're now in the ecosystem.
Like I said, integration doesn’t just fall from the sky.
Windows and android are more open, but the downside is that you don’t really see much integration between the various hardware vendors because again, who’s going to pay for it and what’s the benefit exactly if it doesn’t allow you to meaningfully differentiate your product in the market? Devices are devices, and they kinda just exist and do their own individual things.
More competition in vertical integration is welcome, sure.
Mixing and matching devices from different manufacturers isn't "vertical integration". It's getting a watered down experience. See headaches of pairing bluetooth.
Meanwhile, Apple implements one-button pairing of AirPods across all of your Apple devices. That's where the magic happens.
Microsoft should have continued building a phone and tablet. They probably could have come up with new vertical integration ideas better than Apple.
No, of course it doesn't, but the lack of proper integration is as much a result of the move toward ecosystems as it is the result of it.
Before the iPod and the iPhone and AirPods and whatnot, Apple had stuff like
iSync in order to make it easier to integrate mobile phones and other accessories into your Mac. Better integration, including things like better pairing with Bluetooth headphones, could very much be a competitive advantage if competition between platforms happened entirely on the basis of what the platform can do.
Of course companies will lose interest in pushing any of this when they are also trying to sell you wireless headphones and smartwatches and other accessories.
