There are a lot of inefficiencies in the companies that fab chips. (If you ever need an example of how consolidation / lack of competition leads to less than optimal output, semiconductor fabrication is it.) Stuff that takes on the order of hours or days that should instead take take a minute or two, tops. Information that should be take seconds to access and available at any time is instead put together manually. So much of what would appear to be institutional knowledge at these places is little more that cargo cult voodoo that may or may not have any significant impact on the product. Dumb mistakes (and the subsequent efforts to cover them up) by a workforce whose primary motivations are centered around making it through the day without getting in trouble and without giving away how little they understand and appearing as stupid as they feel.

Honestly, if Apple or Google or any other company with top-tier engineering wanted to get into the game and were serious about it, they could be competitive in a < 10-year time frame, and easily making laps around the competition past that.