i think ordinary people frequently feel frustrated with low-quality software, but it seems to me not necessarily in a way they can consciously articulate. that is, they probably can tell when software is frustrating to use, but they don't notice a clear difference between:
- slow, high-latency software
- poor resource usage slowing down the whole machine, including from unrelated software
- bad user interface design
- bugs
- intentionally bad/manipulative patterns
if the customers can't even really perceive what it is they are buying, it's not surprising that market forces aren't solving the problem.
i'm not a user interface designer or researcher so of course this could be totally wrong -- just an impression from informal observation
your comment made me think that despite the main thrust of my comment, this trajectory is not completely money driven [1]. the incredible journey of the hardware side of technology (cpu speed, memory size, network bandwidth etc) has also played a role in this profligacy because it can cover for a lot of less optimal design
this is something that happens more widely in the use of resources: you build more highways and instead of relieving congestion you get more people commuting
[1] my open source and volunteer-built linux distribution (will not name names) routinely (like almost daily) prompts for GB sized system updates.
- slow, high-latency software
- poor resource usage slowing down the whole machine, including from unrelated software
- bad user interface design
- bugs
- intentionally bad/manipulative patterns
if the customers can't even really perceive what it is they are buying, it's not surprising that market forces aren't solving the problem.
i'm not a user interface designer or researcher so of course this could be totally wrong -- just an impression from informal observation