The whole argument at the top of the thread is “it doesn’t matter how easy/good/performant it is to run a XMPP server, if the people you’ll want to talk to do not have a decent client”.

Yes. I don't dispute that an end-user will opt for a more feature-full option regardless of technical problems behind the scenes over a less feature-full option.

My argument is that I think Matrix's fundamental problems that concern the people hosting Matrix servers will eventually, limit its growth, as those problems will be much harder to fix. In contrast; improving an iOS client app is, from a purely technical perspective, much simpler to achieve. I am not making a statement that end-user's will be interested or care about technical details enough to switch their chat platform of choice, unless those details degrade their experience to the point of making them not desire to use it.

I don't use apple products and do not have a good idea of how much progress is being made in that area. It is a legitimate problem that the iOS app is not as polished as other platforms, I do not dispute this. My only point is that it is technically a simpler problem to remedy, were there enough funding or interest by a skilled developer.

If you are not concerned with what I am about the Matrix protocol and its problems, then that's okay. We have differing opinions is all.