I switched to Mac two years ago, it was Monterey, and though I admit macOS is much better then Windows in every possible way, and has some unique features, there are really many bugs.
There is no software without bugs, of course. But hey, I face with them really too often. I mean, at least once a week or two. And this is the same ratio I had earlier on Windows.
Wrong file icons in Finder (permanent bug). Wrong favicons in Safari (permanent bug, and though it can be easily fixed, it soon occurs again). Occasionally Safari crashes. Occasionally apps freeze and I need to force-quit them (and no, I don’t mean some resource-hog apps). Occasionly, for no reason, I receive a message that my file is on a volume that doesn’t support version control. And other weird things, for example: Finder can't find "Kind:Keynote Presentation"
Some random folks here and there often say that in Steve Jobs ages macOS was much more reliable.
I have been a Mac user for over 20 years, so not that long and I missed the pre OS X days (although I had used them at school and friend’s houses), but I think that is hard to answer for a couple of reasons. One thing, it’s hard to remember, and the grass is always greener. Plus, in my early days I don’t think I knew enough to know when something was a bug or I didn’t understand something. I do vaguely remember bugs though and not everything was perfect. In fact I seem to remember before I was a user there were a lot of complaints about the various versions of Mac OS in the day.
The other, assuming the premise is true, is that Apple is now a mega corporation with lots of products. Back in the day they were almost entirely Mac focused. They could focus on that alone on the software side of things.
I don’t have a lot of time for people who argue that the Steve Jobs era was better though. It wasn’t. it was more fun because we were the minority and Apple products were unique and interesting, but the company itself was not better.
The magic that was Snow Leopard (2009). How we all romanticize that release! They gave themselves two years instead of one since the previous Leopard, and produced a version that was basically only bug fixes. They need to stop doing annual releases.
Ha, I forgot about that, the early cat releases were getting steadily more buggy. And then there were the iOS releases that were so buggy they had to pull a couple of them, but I can’t remember if that was under Jobs or Cook.
I keep hearing about the systemic issue at Apple - Even though they have grown to a huge company, after a product or feature is finished, they re-assign the team to do something else.
Unlike some other large firms, they don’t have long-term dedicated product teams that span the function concept, plan, implementation, support, and on-going fixes but re-assign people, whenever they decide it is needed, to fix something, and them pull them off again.
There is also HUGE organizational rivalry and politics internally.
My neighbor works for Apple (he moved away, but still works there). I won’t say more about what he does so he can’t be identified, but he came from another large company and said he tried several times to help another group solve a technical problem that he knew well from his previous job.
He manager scolded him and told him never to help another group again. He was told the manager of that other group needed to contact my friend’s manager’s manager and formally request help and only then could he be loaned, even part-time to help the other group.
I can think of both innocuous, reasonable, and Machiavellian reasons for this attitude, but my friend was never told any explanation so I won’t wildly speculate, but I’m sure it has something to do with money, power, and ego.
While todays macOS is pretty stable, so was OS X when it hit it’s stride at about 10.4.
Both had/have bugs, an OS’ always will do because they’re so complex and especially at Apple there’s not enough resource to fix everything,
As @SpivR says, once the latest version is completed for release, the team are moved onto the next thing. With little ownership for individual components, it’s no wonder that people don’t see bug fixing as their problem. Look how long it took to fix the DiscoveryD issue.
Some OS’ are stable at release, others less so. It’s the way of the world when you’ve effectively set yourself a deadline of releasing several “new” operating systems every September whether they’re ready or not. Talk about putting pressure on yourself.
At least they’ve started easing that pressure by releasing features through the year now.