Idk about others but I know very well how complacent average consumers are.
I see hundreds every day using phones that have really poor specs and are hated by every person in the tech community.
My cousin for example: She got a crappy OPPO A17 with Helio G35, micro USB, 720p 60hz LCD and still Android 12 for $150 back in 2022. That was worse than basically every option out there at that time. However, she’s content with that phone. She plays games with us on it, scrolls social media and even finishes entire web series and movies on that.
But does that mean she wouldn’t have a better experience with a more powerful processor, type c & a better display?
Average consumers would definitely have a better experience if they are given something better. They’re fine with their current phone because that’s the best they know.
They obviously won’t point out directly like “oh this Dimensity 7300 is making the performance so much better” or “this 120hz AMOLED display with 1500 bits of brightness is so good”. Those things will just improve their experience of owing the phone.
Just accepting companies will cut costs because of these average consumers isn’t going to do any good either.
I also think the tech community underestimates their voice way too much. We are a very small minority but if most of us called out companies together for their bad practices we might make tiny impacts that benefits the end consumers.
PS: The most ironic part about this average consumer argument is a lot of Android phone average consumers like it when their phone has elements copied from iOS but no one using this argument acknowledges this point.
These consumers also don’t care about the shitty looks and alignments of elements in UIs like FuntouchOS, they just want a smooth, stable, bug free OS.