They consequently spend less time on development and can make cooler games. To this I will give the example of any hardware company. Say Company X wants to make a SCSI card. Products that can't rely on standards love this aspect of Apple. In most situations, hardware companies don't have to test their products on every board available on the market.
Standards keep things in balance.
If all motherboard companies make their products with the PCI standard, Hardware Company X only has to test their board once. If it works there, it'll work anywhere. Standards are what make the computer industry go. If you have a modern day computer, you can walk into any store and buy RAM that will work reliably. Apple has long been the ugly duckling of the computer industry.