User research (by whatever name and process) is not really about 'best possible' UI and UX, it's about differentiating oneself in the marketplace and capturing enough user content/data to lock users in.

Meanwhile, despite the occasional brilliant outcome, there's a high ratio of crap, both hardware and software, created by arrogant egotists like Jobs (and Ford, and Google, and Microsoft...). I'll more readily give a pass to the crap created by merely mediocre producers.