Anecdotally, I didn't find the situation internally to be much better. Many bugs internally go unanswered because there is not enough time allocated to fixing core systems and designing better replacements. The truth is, I know personally of several teams that aren't able to get through the queue of internally filed and scheduled bugs.

To me, it feels like Apple hasn't resourced core pieces of infrastructure and engineering teams in line with upper management's plans for growth. While many teams are relatively sequestered, once you start talking to folks elsewhere in the company it becomes clear that many teams are struggling to stay above water. More still, everyone shrugs about it because it's not clear exactly what is wrong. The best description I've heard is in many cases engineers are willing to offer hacks as a solution to meet management's demands, and management is either willing to accept those hacks or doesn't know better. That is far from a full picture, and its an example drawn from a small slice of an enormous company. But it seems telling to me. I find it completely reasonable to imagine that most teams in a place to deal with customer facing bugs don't have adequate time to do so. Not to their satisfaction, never mind customers.

At the same time, I think it can be hard to appreciate the ways in which Apple is ahead of the curve as far as the categories of software projects it tackles. So I don't mean to imply that anyone is really to blame per se. And it's also a shame because Radar was the greatest bug tracker I have ever used. It is unclear to me if Apple doesn't prioritize menial things like handling external bug reports, or if problems like that are not visible to / perceived by those in the company who could do something about it.