It's not what you'd expect for a linux machine but it just works and has a reliable ecosystem with iOS. The worst is trying to understand how it stores information, but again if you're expecting control like in a linux machine, prepare to be disappointed.
I think MacOS is simply a terrible UNIX environment, period. The BSD bones are good, but the XNU kernel itself is a disaster and the way Apple handles user isolation, package management and runtime idempotency borders on outright neglect. Kernel extensions are depreciated and no DKMS equivalent exists, 32-bit support gets axed overnight and even simple drivers can't be ported from other UNIX-likes to MacOS. No wonder Linux is considered a more serious standard, all the UNIXes are trying to fucking murder each other instead of progressing the POSIX standard!
It really does not "just work", unless you're treating the Mac like an iPad. 20 years ago the Mac compiled software just as good as anything else, today it can't install Vulkan headers because third-party software scares Apple. Simply holding Apple to the standards of their contemporaries reveals that they're paranoid and do not trust their users.
That’s spanning decades. The current lineup is highly consistent: macOS, iPadOS (I don’t think Apple uses a space here), tvOS, watchOS, audioOS all use product categoryOS.
homeOS doesn’t exist yet for the public, does it?
The only outlier is iOS, which should have been called phoneOS or iPhoneOS.
I think you could copy/paste this excuse for the failings of every computer operating system since XP.
"Just enough" isn't going to cut it when the rest of the experience is subscription slopware, dark patterns and hidden advertisements. Microsoft doesn't get a free pass for it and neither does Apple - OSes weren't always like this!