Apple is gaining more and more market share in the US (55% right now) and they're gaining in Europe and China also while Android is losing. Mark Zuckerberg did an interview with The Verge recently and even he said iPhone is winning the smartphone war. I would ring the alarm if I were Google.
Taste is subjective though, and if you don't happen to like what Apple provides you are out of luck. There are many more ways to customize Android without rooting, and I think that is cool.
Hacker news does sort of self select for people who value tinker-ability over any kind of aesthetic design choices. I think we are part of a relatively small minority here.
apple isn't innovating their designs either, they are more going for fossilizing their increasingly rounded corners, kind of like the rolls-royce of phones
