Making good tools requires a lot of effort and many small, incremental improvements over a long period of time. The creators of Concepts (one of my favorite iPad apps) provide a good picture of this, in a post chronicling ten years of Concepts development:
If you’re invested in the digital creative space, it can seem like these developments that feel and act so magically are almost expected or taken for granted. We all put our hands up and say, “Of course, this should be obvious by now.” But the truth is they take deliberate engineering to bring the developments about. They wouldn’t exist if we didn’t put the ideas and time in. Watching our world’s technologies grow one decision at a time - whether it’s our own app or through another team’s resources and efforts - is humbling and worth celebrating.
From the same post, TopHatch Founder Ben Merrill:
The app in my head is about five years down the road, and the version I wish I had is relegated to Tony Stark. It just takes a long time to build good tools, but we’re making progress.