Other manufactures invent tech, and yet other's try to bring this new tech to the buying public.
Some of it works, and the public like it, some of it fails as the public don't like it.
Apple watches this, and cherry picks the tech others have made to put into their products.
They then market this VERY well, and make up a story of how this collection of others parts, in this new Apple product is the product you want.
The point is, Apple needs others to come up with this.
Without Samsung for example, and others Apple would be nowhere.
You need the inventors and innovators to create in the 1st place, for others, such as Apple to gather into a product they wish to brand with their name.
Apple folks tend to criticize other brands for just making stuff, throwing it against the wall and seeing if it sticks. However this is how we move forward and get to where we are today.
It's also how Humans were made and how nature works.
Something is tried, if it works it evolves on wards, if it fails it dissapears. and gets replaced.
I hear you, and yet I do have one criticism.
There is nothing that says these two have to be mutually exclusive. A company can come up with a clever and innovative piece of technology, such as OLED screens or flexible displays, and yet flounder when it comes to implementing it, especially if it does not result in a great experience for the end user.
There is a difference between novelty and quality. The problem here is often that a company comes up with a clever piece of tech, then has to bend over backwards to justify including it in a product to cover the R&D costs. Apple doesn't do this, and that's what separates Apple from the rest of the competition at the end of the day.
Because even with decades of experience building products and integrating hardware, software, and services, you can still have companies who decide to make a smartphone with a hardware keyboard, netbook, circular smartwatch, or a foldable phone. The reason why Apple has not made any of these, and instead created the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, and is now working of Glasses, is design.
Design is the magic ingredient, with Apple designers calling the shots, and searching for and having technology made to serve the product experience, not engineers excited about about new hot tech and trying to turn it into a product. Apple Glasses vs. foldable phones is the latest example of Apple's design culture leading to an entirely different product than what engineering-led companies are doing.
Because ultimately, this is what I am paying for. A company's "taste" in being able to put all these disparate pieces of tech together into an integrated package that "just works".
Just like when I am eating at a restaurant. It doesn't matter to me that the dish I am ordering, like say fish and chips, is also being offered in a million other eateries around the world. It doesn't matter that the restaurant doesn't rear their own fish or grow their own vegetables. Ultimately, what matters is whether the chef is able to use all the ingredients at his disposal to create a dish that tastes great (for me).
And for all their flaws, Apple knows how to get the product experience right where it matters, and that is why I am an Apple user through and through.