Judging by the state of most software I use, customers genuinely could not care less about bugs. Software quality is basically never a product differentiator at this point.
I'm not saying zero actual people care, I'm saying that not enough people care to actually differentiate. Is Windows getting better now that you switched? Then it doesn't matter you left.
I mean, Microsoft has recently made a statement that they're aware people are mad and they're working on it, so, no, I don't think they care that I personally hate the software but they do care that there are a number of people like me. Whether that moves the needle, I don't know, but what I do know is right now I'm using non-slop non-electron software and it's so much more pleasant. I think it's worth protecting.
I think that's too broad of a blanket statement. Plenty of people including myself choose Apple products in part for their software quality over Windows and Linux. However there are other factors like network effects or massive marketing campaigns, sales team efforts etc that are often far greater.
We just don't know how bad it will get with AI coding though. Do you think the average consumer won't care about software quality when the bank software "loses" a big transition they make? Or when their TV literally stops turning on? People will tolerate shitty software if they have to, when it's minor annoyances, but it makes them unhappy and they won't tolerate big problems for long.
You are 100% correct, people as a whole don't really care. I can prove it, Excel exists. Not only does it exist but a huge chunk of the world runs on it.
I've see every kind of wrong actively in production and 99/100 times no one cared enough to fix it. Even when it was losing money.
Most users are forced to use the software that they use. That doesn't mean they don't care, just that they're stuck.
BTW, this going to matter MORE now that RAM prices are skyrocketing..