When they were released in the 1990s they were pretty capable machines. The OS had its issues, but I don’t think it faired badly against DOS/Windows 3.11. They were however largely limited to the UK marketed, and had a more limited selection of software.
I’m not sure it’s really fair to characterize them as “crappy”.
Saying that, I did write my first ever computer program on them and ended up making iPhone apps.