I feel Apple has lost its alignment with me and other long-time customers

Design Changes: Liquid Glass, Tahoe, and iOS 26

• Many see Liquid Glass and the new macOS/iOS look as “innovation for its own sake”: more transparency, motion, and visual noise that reduce legibility and feel Vista‑like.
• Complaints center on harder‑to‑read text, extra taps for common actions (e.g., Safari tabs), and design churn instead of bug‑fixing.
• Others like the new aesthetic and in‑place menus and say once you tweak accessibility (e.g., reduce transparency) it works well, arguing Apple is trying to avoid seeming stale after a decade‑old UI.

iPhone Air, Lineup Strategy, and Form vs Function

• One camp sees iPhone Air as a gimmicky, half‑fake thin phone with worse battery and camera, arguing phones are already too thin and too big; many would prefer a thicker “fat battery” phone or a return of the mini.
• Another camp thinks Air is a smart segmentation: Air for people who value feel, thinness, and fashion; Pro/Pro Max for camera, battery, and “tool” buyers. They see this as analogous to Watch vs Watch Ultra.
• Some frame Air as a large‑scale manufacturing/supply‑chain test and/or a step toward foldables, though others say it doesn’t exercise the truly hard foldable problems.

Awe, Maturity, and Event Fatigue

• Strong sense that “awe” has faded: phones, laptops, and watches are mature; keynotes feel over‑hyped for incremental gains.
• A minority push back, citing Apple Silicon, AirPods, satellite features, and Vision Pro as genuinely transformative, but concede the cadence is slower and surrounded by a lot of marketing gloss.

AirPods, Watch, and Ecosystem Value

• AirPods Pro are widely praised as one of Apple’s best products in years: great ANC, sound, and especially device‑switching within the ecosystem; many Android and Windows users say they still buy them.
• Others argue they’re overpriced, e‑waste by design (non‑repairable, battery replacement = replacement unit), and that comparable earbuds exist much cheaper.
• Apple Watch divides opinion: some find it bloated and fidgety and dislike the yearly “life‑saving sob stories” marketing; others say those health/emergency features are uniquely valuable, especially in remote areas.

Repairability, Modularity, and E‑Waste

• A visible group wants thicker, modular phones with easily swappable batteries and screens, citing Fairphone and old Nokias as proof it’s feasible and better for cost and e‑waste.
• Opponents argue that most buyers don’t want to repair anything themselves, modularity would hurt waterproofing and size, and fast charging + power banks largely replaced hot‑swap batteries.
• Several report mixed real‑world repair experiences: cheap kiosk repairs often poor; Apple sometimes breaks devices during service but replaces them; genuine parts are expensive either way.

Alignment, Lock‑In, and Nostalgia

• Many long‑time Apple users feel “out of alignment”: they see Apple chasing lifestyle/status and shareholder value over the old “it just works for serious users” ethos.
• Others counter that tech circles have complained since the 90s, that Apple’s real alignment is with billions of mainstream users, and emotional loyalty to any megacorp is a dead end.
• There’s broad agreement that ecosystem lock‑in is real (photos, iMessage, apps, Watch, AirPods), making switching to Android/Linux costly in time and convenience, even when people are unhappy.