As a Google fan I accept a certain amount of flakiness as part of the brand identity. It's always celebrated a quirky, rough feel. In some ways, Google is starting to get TOO slick.
People expect Apple to be innovative and reliable; too push the boundaries without ever falling over them. It's hard to do either consistently, successfully, at scale. It might be impossible to do both.
I agree with you however I feel like they've been trying to shrug that off and grow up and that's left me a little underwhelmed.
I got two thirds of the way through that article and realized that the way he felt about Apple was how I felt about Google. They keep thrusting crap upon us that no one asked for, remove stuff we do like, or neglect things until people abandon them.
Meanwhile Microsoft has been dramatically stepping up it's game but everyone still looks at them like the Catholic Priest that molested them as a child.
This is because your investment in their hardware is at a premium price. People expect when they drop 2-3K for a PC that both of things are going to be a given. Obviously, in the last few years, this hasn't been the case.