Three facts: 1: clang was significantly worse when Apple removed GCC support, 2: clang is still significantly worse than GCC, and 3: it's because of Google's investment, not Apple's, that we can think of clang as a "in the same stadium" competitor to GCC that makes Apple's removal of GCC surprising.

Any pair of these wouldn't be surprising. Apple is investing in an unproven technology, ok fine. But the congruence of these three facts is surprising. Apple is investing in a worse technology and also relies entirely on Google to improve that technology for them. Blows my mind.