I'd place the high water mark a bit earlier, probably around 10.6. They mostly hadn't started removing or dumbing down stuff yet: you still had Front Row, because they weren't trying to sell you Apple TV; it was new enough to have the modern Cocoa Finder but also still provided Rosetta; iOS influences weren't a problem yet; iCloud wasn't so deeply integrated and File menus still showed Save As by default; multi-monitor use hadn't yet been ruined by the new full-screen app modes; you still had real scrollbars and the OS didn't make the mistake of treating indirect touchpad scrolling the same as direct touchscreen scrolling.

There's still a lot to like about newer versions, but the stuff that was removed on the way to 10.6 I was mostly glad to see go (excessive brushed metal) or at least don't miss now, while there are some things from 10.6 that are now gone and I still miss them.

I don't see the removal of ObjC GC as all that bad, especially in comparison to the death of the Cocoa-Java bridge. At least the former offered a compelling migration path for actively maintained software, in the form of ARC.

> Every OS manufacturer has tried its hand at "convergence" across desktops and mobile. Apple seems no different. I'm not sure why, but OS vendors seem drawn to the concept like moths to a flame, and it's always a mess.

That is an interesting observation. Off the top of my head I can think of: MS, BeOS, MacOS, and Ubuntu.