I'm not referring to Emacs with that, but rather to Stallman holding Emacs functionality hostage to boost GNU OS platform(s). Which are definitely lackluster.
Its not because its not shiny and not pricey that its lackluster. At least you can customize stuff on your OS instead of having to follow the only way designed by Apple.
Do you know any other platform that managed to form a foundation for org-mode? Until there is, emacs may not be called a "lackluster platform".