If I was a cynic (which I'm not....) I'd say that if parts of the high end hi-fi industry especially applied proper design then there'd be no reason for them to exist and a whole cottage industry of magazines, boutique dealers etc would face an existential crises. (Note though, there are high end providers that really do know what they're doing and make equipment which is expensive but genuinely superb, such as Benchmark). At the other end of the food chain I think some of the cheap and cheerful suppliers probably genuinely are a bit ignorant of the basics (although again, a lot of the cheap gear from China especially is actually very good and in many cases as good as the vast majority of people will ever need IMO).