Sorry no. Vulkan literally did not exist. That's not obfuscation. It didn't even exist.

Had Apple adopted Mantle then where would they be now? Apple did what they do, took ownership of their own stack.

"Sorry no" whatever. Khronos was discussing what to do with Mantle as it became Vulkan. Apple was part of those industry players who were invited to the table. Apple left and did their own thing, like Apple does.

These specs don't spring up fully formed. Vulkan was a collaboration long before it was named as such and released; Approaching Zero Driver Overhead/bindless was 100% clear writing on the wall for a while by then. Apple just doesn't collaborate; they demand control. That's why they didn't participate when everyone else was figuring out how to distill out Vulkan from Mantle & other close to the metal patterns that were already about.

Apple _shipped_ Metal in 2014. Kronos started their work in 2014 and wasn't even named as such until 2015. The full spec wasn't released until 2016.

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo also don't really care Vulkan exists.

Besides AMD most likely only offered Mantle, because OpenGL vNext was going to be another Long Peaks failure, had it not been the case.

And for what, Vulkan is already an spaghetti extension mess, with a complexity that feels like build a car out of LEGO Technics pieces, when one wants to drive down to the grocery store.