if we’re going to make nonsequitur Apple comparisons, we should note that it was compatible with almost no existing programs, unlike Apple’s contemporary offerings
There's probably quite a few games and programs that didn't run on NT, but I haven't actually encountered any of those for NT4. I had great memories playing unreal tournament on some NT4 machines in a computer lab (while we were supposed to be taking lessons).
FWIW Win2k (aka NT5) compatibility was great. I lived on it for a while before I completely migrated away from Windows ~2002.
For all their flaws, Microsoft took compatibility very seriously back then, I suspect the "incompatibility" part is a bit overblown and didn't affect as many users as we might perceive..
I'm not sure where you got this from. When I used it, I didn't observe any compatibility problems.
> unlike Apple’s contemporary offerings
Apple have a history of breaking third party apps, far more than Microsoft.