Yep: Ken Kocienda, in "Creative Selection", his book about Apple's design process, makes fun of how the "others" ran 100s of A/B tests to determine the shade of blue for some interface, and other such metrics obsessions.

Apple's different philosophy is admirable: hire people with "taste".

As Fred Brooks said, "great design comes from great designers" (though by "design" he meant "engineering" but still) [1]

[1] See PDF: http://worrydream.com/refs/Brooks-NoSilverBullet.pdf