IMHO this is only temporary, china buying themselves some time and want to make sure none of US models get entrenched in their position in the next few years (also putting pressure on US AI companies bleeding them)
The same way like Windows got entrenched everywhere even though linux desktop is pretty good even for non-tech savvy people and free.
My grandma just clicks on the red fox and does whatever online. A lot of people don't use any software outside of the browser, so it's pretty good-enough I guess.
I was completely (well, mostly) serious, too. I think technical people tend to downplay friction because it doesn't really register to them, or they have too much faith in the average person's computer skills.
The average non-technical person is going to be stumped by the first "lock file found, cannot upgrade" error.
I cannot even install a Windows system with a local account anymore without having to open the terminal and enter some obscure commands.
A modern Debian or Fedora with KDE is a breeze otoh, I set that up for relatives and my SO, and they're all more than happy with it. Bugs exist, like in all software, but the friction is way less compared to wrangling with Windows nowadays.
Sure, if you're fine with double standards, every issue from Windows is a non-issue, even something simple as using a local account-or being forced to view ads even after paying (!) for the OS.
It's certainly subjective, but the amount of tech support I have to give has dropped significantly since switching the few people I care enough about to help from Windows to a mature Linux distro like Debian, while they are certainly not less productive.
The same way like Windows got entrenched everywhere even though linux desktop is pretty good even for non-tech savvy people and free.