Making furniture with features that no one can see except the carpenter is a disadvantage compared to the same carpenter who focuses their time making more their furniture more visually appealing to their customers.
Everyone seems to forget that Apple was nearly bankrupt in the 90s because no one was willing to pay so much for their product when Microsoft did it cheaper and similar quality (from the users perspective).
Sure. It's a rather tiny market that can't support a lot of furniture makers. But it can support at least a couple, and I'll bet you that those ones aren't going cheap on materials.
> Everyone seems to forget that Apple was nearly bankrupt in the 90s
I certainly haven't forgotten, but that's orthogonal to my point. My point is that in many industries, there are high-quality, very expensive versions of the products. One of the things that makes them high quality and expensive is that they don't cut corners. In electronics, I've seen the same effect, where extra care and expense was placed into things that technically don't need it and are unlikely to ever be seen by the customer. That extra care and expense matters to that demographic, though.
While Apple is certainly not on the same level as that, the point is true craftsmanship and meticulous attention to detail does still exist in consumer goods, and can be handsomely profitable.
I guess the metaphor applies here too. Some will take that pride and rise up. Some will take that pride and fall behind despite being equally qualified as the ones who rose. Others will coast along and make stable business.
I think where the metaphor breaks down is visibility. Sure, that cheap plywood isn't normally visible, but a customer who looks will find it. very few iphone consumers have the skills to find bad code and fewer care as long as it does what it is intended. It's probably more akin to selling hot dogs than selling a chair.