Ok, the OEMs offer such customizability that it hurts margins and offers a silly customer experience. But they might have chased this model for a more complex

Ok, the OEMs offer such customizability that it hurts margins and offers a silly customer experience. But they might have chased this model for a more complex reason than "all these companies are idiots." Maybe OEMs found, with the ubiquity of components, that if they don't compete with customization, they invite competition from homebuilt PCs, or PCs built and shipped out of some guy's basement. Maybe they're walking an awkward tightrope which Apple avoids by making its own OS.