> intentionally slow UI just so it would look smooth.

I get your anger, but it's not about trying to look 'cool'. For lots of folks it's more clear to see that (for example) a minimised window can be found in the dock by showing a transition. For people like you there's a preference (under accesibility - display - reduce motion) to turn it off.

Generally I stay away from Apple products or topics. The only reason I decided to comment was that I am forced to use Mac in my current work and after several stints I understood I was not going to get used to it. If people use it and like it, I don't mind. For me, it's just not intuitive; for instance, I wouldn't have thought of looking for this setting, let alone under accessibility options.

If you're going to have to use an unfamiliar device it helps to just check out what it can do (e.g. explore the settings) before concluding it sucks ;)

I don't really have the patience for silly stuff that annoys me and should/could be trivial to adjust. Just Google something (in this case 'macos disable animations') and you can remove a lot of friction from your daily life.

The problem is that there can be many such "small" things, sometimes with complex solutions ( remapping cmd+tab) or no solution at all ( having different scroll direction between trackpad and mouse. After some time you just get tired and accept the OS isn't for you and you stop fighting it.

Exactly how I feel, nice explanation.

It's not just silly stuff. There is stuff such as Apple Music which opens on the foreground every time I put on Bluetooth headphones and the two ways to stop it are either modify some internal system settings via shell or use another app which closes Apple Music immediately after it opens.

Another issue is the fact that whenever I turn on my headphones, if they were connected before laptop went to sleep, it will automatically wake up. Imagine if it was in your backpack and started working there.

At one point I had a list of Mac software issues but then I threw it away before I was forced using it again. As another commenter said, there is a threshold of small issues which once they add up is overstepped and then you search and find better options.

Infantile? Which parts?

Rainbow-colored spinning loading wheel; jumping menu bar icons, trying to grab your precious attention for whatever reason; minimize button triggering "sucking" animation; app installation where you have to needlessly drag an icon onto Applications folder; pop-up windows which appear, then momentarily shrink and expand again. Sometimes it gives certain 1960's Batman TV series vibes.