Are you comparing this to e.g Visual Studio now? Because most SDKs are free (.NET, even the C++ compiler can be used freely now afaik), as is vscode and there are of course several other free IDEs.
VS Code supports a subset of Windows development workloads, try to develop C++/WinRT applications or a WPF GUI in VS Code, for example.
VS Community is only free for open source, students or companies up to 5 employees with a specific yearly revenue limit.
The issue with macOS development is that there are simple things you pretty much have to do for even the most basic app to work correctly--such as build the menu bar from a nib or bundle icons--that require you to use closed source software like altool and ibtool that come with Xcode (and then, despite being command line tools, for some incompetent reason tend to be tied very tightly to the current version of the operating system, which makes stuff like CI extremely annoying).
So many examples that are beyond bare bones Win32 C calls.
They certainly have the cash on hand to actually do so.
> If you want to develop on Mac, you have to use Xcode, you cant use any other tools.
Unlike Windows you can do everything you want in free Xcode, only when you want to distribute your applications to others you need the 99$/year codesign certificate. Also, you don't even need full Xcode to compile programs, see e.g. Homebrew or MacPorts.
> Try connecting a variable refresh rate screen to a mac, or a VR headset, or Thundebolt device, or just a USB device in to one of their mobile devices. Try playing the latest hot AAA game everyone is talking about.
Most of what you mentioned is gaming, that has never been any market of Apple's - and besides, you can always dual-boot into Windows on the Intel side (and probably, soon enough into Linux on the M1 side). The other stuff (TB, USB on mobile) isn't well supported on the competitions' side too - all I can plug in into my Android phone and tablet is a mouse, keyboard and USB soundcard.
> Try installing a better voice assistant, store, browser or music player and you will find that Apple has made it hard or impossible.
Agreed on the voice assistant. The rest? I can download and install apps like I want, I am not depending on the App Store for anything. Browser? Chrome or Firefox (although I admit, I would be happier if Apple opened up and documented the ways that Safari can use to save battery life) can be downloaded and installed in minutes. Music player? Spotify and VLC have all you want, Amazon Music has an OS X app, and for the iOS side foobar2000 also exists.
> Apple is fine now, because its great at a few things and good enough at the rest of the things it needs to find a large market. How long can a company not fail at one of so many things?
Apple has enough cash on hand and cash flow from their current product line to wait out any "failure" - and they have the cash to buy so much advertising to make a literal pile of poo a bestseller anyway. They are so huge they literally cannot fail.