My take on it would be it's definitely OK to revive if it's going to be FOSS. Just like how VC replaced TC, even though the developers didn't intend for that to happen.
I'd say that they are more than moderate failures. I've heard from many acquaintances who aren't as tech literate as myself that one of the major reasons they got rid of their iPhone was not being able to install applications from outside sources.
Myself, I would never want to trust anything centralized.
MBP quality has been consistently less and less quality as the years go on. It would take me a page just to write out the critical issues my brand new MBP is facing. Apple has not done much QC with the updates to the point of an update temporarily wasting the computer.
They have had very deceptive advertising tricks in the past, such as "original formula" not being the original at all, and having to fix it to "original taste." To me that is very underhanded.
The government version of "lawful operations" is them just getting some flimsy warrant rubber stamped by a judge who has absolutely no clue (or care) about how technology works.
The great thing about technology is that it doesn't have to put up with things like useless warrants. Using encryption is the equivalent to have a reinforced door protecting you from people who want to do harm to you that ignores all warrants and cannot be broken or talked down. Thank god for encryption that works, it literally saves lives from the current crops of tyrannical governments worldwide.