Apple made the correct choice when not supporting the DIY crowd
Did they? They certainly lost (didn't gain) the bulk of the PC market which you could argue is a good thing, but also relegates Macs to a much smaller (albeit more profitable per machine) niche market.
They didn't lose the majority of the PC market; they never had it to begin with. To gain the PC market, you need to make/license/QA drivers—lots and lots (and lots) of high-quality drivers. Microsoft has spent the last 20-odd years doing this, and they still can't guarantee a high enough quality standard that my webcam won't lock up Explorer when I accidentally select it with Preview enabled.
Unless your webcam is made by microsoft specifically for your os (vista/xp/etc) then it is not microsoft who has to supply the correct drivers to integrate well with explorer.
That's exactly the point. The end-user doesn't care who's responsibility that hang is, they bought the hardware and software together and when it hangs, it's Microsoft's fault. Even though we know it's actually J Random driver programmer who wrote the bogus code.
Apple's stranglehold on the hardware and software irks my hacker sensibilities, but it's the key to a much better user experience.
Did they? They certainly lost (didn't gain) the bulk of the PC market which you could argue is a good thing, but also relegates Macs to a much smaller (albeit more profitable per machine) niche market.