You're right. I'm not an Apple user but their equipment and performance is pretty much tops. From the outset Jobs was aware that ergonomics and usability were the key to success.

Apple is now about the richest company in history, so why don't others manufacturers realize this and copy their example?

It doesn't make sense why other manufacturers alienate users over unintelligible sound. The extra cost of getting it correct is negligible. Why can't they see that?