That is the fact. You may like it or not but for more than 90% of all pc users, ease of use and looks is what matters most. Which is practically true, and is basis of thousands of tech brands, including prominent ones.
For example, take ms office. You can use Libre office or open office or free office or other freeware alternative to ms office in most use cases, but a lot of people still tend to spend money to purchase ms office, because better gui tends to attract people. Everyone knows it sends data to ms, but they pretend to not care. They don’t want to know what’s behind ms office or windows or macos. They are actually using it for some other purposes, like graphic designing, education, social media, mining etc.
Also, complete fashion industry is based on looks.
But we are on Linux community, and here people (including me) are more concerned about what’s underneath.
Everyone has their own priorities, and imho, it is not “sad”