> but it's equally likely with the evidence we have (read: zero) that they fucked up because they don't know what they're doing
That's a pretty bold claim, and it seems far less likely than it being an intentional decision for whatever reason (and making things easier for new users certainly is a plausible reason).
Because Apple has a lot of experience with Night Shift on iOS, and it beggars belief that they'd ship Night Shift on macOS without at least looking at how it compares to f.lux. It's simply not reasonable to claim that behaving differently than f.lux is due to incompetence.
That's a pretty bold claim, and it seems far less likely than it being an intentional decision for whatever reason (and making things easier for new users certainly is a plausible reason).