Bad culture that views software as a necessary evil or afterthought rather than an important part of the product.

Same as industrial design then. You get the occasional Braun, Herman Miller or Apple, and a vast number of nondescript silver/beige/black boxes.

It's probably true of lots of aspects of product design - if it's not driven from the top, it's mediocre.

Yeah, unless the engineers are using the product themselves. People in general seem to take care of their own tools. Much harder to get them to look after a product they don’t use themselves.