I think you should be pissed at bottom barrel Android manufacturers putting shitty messaging interfaces on Android phones more than Apple for having a good messaging system.
I'm still using SMS for most of my messaging, and I primarily blame Apple for that.
Google's incentive is to keep you using their platform across any device; because, that is what is in their best interest, they make their money from billions upon billions of small advertising interactions across a vast ocean of interconnected platforms and devices.
Apple sells physical devices, it's their incentive to make sure the experience is great for whoever bought that device. They make their money from selling billions of devices...
Apple's focus is on the "user," and Google's focus is on the "platform." Both have different types of lock-in, but have different reasons why.
I still lost how it's Apple's problem that the standard interface of SMS/MMS is just totally shitty and not capable of doing what people want. Complain to your telecommunication, handset, and operating system providers/vendors to build or enable a better open standard (like RCS or whatever it is).
Their decision to wall off iMessage actively hurts their own customers by preventing them from seamlessly communicating with the most popular mobile OS using modern technology. They get away with it because they're Apple and they make good products, but that doesn't mean I have to think it's good.