System76 has always work on both software and hardware. The from the beginning have done much work in firmware and drivers, and increasingly up the stack. Creating PopOS as Ubuntu with up to date hardware support. And then increasingly listing to their users on what improvments they can make. This lead to early gnome extension and then the gnome shell.

At the same time they have invested a lot in hardware as well. Their own case, their own mechanical keyboards. They are doing thab because they want to make their own laptop eventually.

They want to be a more open Apple, with a great hardware and software story. It just a much longer path to get there.