I’m not sure why the effort alone makes it worthy of use. The product needs to be judged on its functional merits, not based solely on what it costs and how much work was put into it.
I also disagree that it was a step up for spec made available by other vendors before. Apple’s original Human Interface Guidelines for the Macintosh (http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf ) was a paragon of usability. AFAICT nearly everything we’ve invented since has been a step back.
If anything, Material Design is a textbook example of “you get what you pay for.”
I also disagree that it was a step up for spec made available by other vendors before. Apple’s original Human Interface Guidelines for the Macintosh (http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf ) was a paragon of usability. AFAICT nearly everything we’ve invented since has been a step back.
If anything, Material Design is a textbook example of “you get what you pay for.”