Do I want too much from Apple?

[Findecanor]

Does Apple really thinks that implementing stupid kludges like TCC on top of Unix permissions is a good idea? The mind boggles...

I don't think the idea is bad. Unix permissions are for users, not apps.
I haven't used Macs since before TCC was introduced, but I suppose that it is rather the implementation that is at fault. Or perhaps a completely different permissions model would be more appropriate than Unix'es and something grafted on top of it.

[Muirium]

For what it's worth, I'm happier on the Mac now than since the Mac OS X heydays of the early-mid 2000s, before iOS took all of Apple's love. Why? Mostly the hardware. The M1 fucking rocks! Blew me away when I got one on launch day, and I'm still delighted with it a year and running later. This is by far my fastest Mac ever (or computer of any kind), yet it's also my first fanless one. Love it to bits! It's like the silence of 80s computing when the floppy drive was inactive. Nowadays, the only whining laptops I hear are other people's!

I recognise the complaints here, though. Pretty much everyone is making them. Apple's hardware is stellar right now, while their software is not. Some of it is control, a lot more of it is neglect, and I hope they turn that ship around the way they did the Mac hardware platform. Back in 2016, things were profoundly bleak for the Mac. By 2020, that had transformed… for hardware. The software's still to catch up.