It was the start of Apple's long tradition of form over function.

How has Apple survived over 40 years if it were just about form over function while most of its contemporaries over the years have disappeared?

Arguably it's not the same Apple. I don't see a lot of continuity in approach between the company that brought us the Apple IIe and the company that makes the iPhone.

Both the company that brought the Apple //e and the company that brought the world the iPhone had Steve Jobs in charge and very much went for vertical integration.

could have looked at the more recent thermal paste gpu issues with mbp 2011 (which i was hit by) or the similar imac problems in 2012(?)