[Galaxy S III General] :
I agree with OP about Samsung's priorities (Marketing>Software>Design>hardware), but I also disagree with his views.

To start check the Galaxy S3 page: http://www.samsung.com/uk/gs3/?pid=uk_home_thelatest_right1_gs3_20120518

Note that they don't even mention anything about specs. If you clearly see the SGS3 launch video, they did not even care to mention that it has the most powerful GPU in any mobile. I think SGS3 marks a complete shift in Samsung's focus areas.

Let's analyze 2 different scenarios:

1] Samsung gave their all in terms of hardware in SGS2. It was the best smartphone in 2011. What made it tick was the powerful internal hardware, fluid interface and that sAMOLED screen. If Samsung would have continued with this same philosophy, all we will get is

more

. By more, I mean more power, more battery, more screen, and more benchmarks. It's all great for XDA-dwellers. But it means zilch-zero-nada for common people who are Samsung's real target. Have anyone noticed the consumer PC market? HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo are all competing on only specs and price. Is there

anything

that distinguishes a Dell from a HP or Acer? You can do everything in Dell that you can do in a HP laptop. Now, has anyone checked the latest profit numbers these companies are making from PC business? Absolutely nothing. This happens when you just try to compete in specs. One day, companies will find that extra 20% power means nothing in actual real-life performance. Because there is hardly anything that is going to use that power. You just become a generic hardware vendor slapping an OS over your high-spec machine. And your competitor is also doing the exact same. How can you ever imagine to have a high margin if you can't differentiate.

2] Why is Apple the only PC manufacturer making profits when others can't do? They sell the same hardware (maybe even inferior hardware compared to HP/Dell etc.,) It's because they are using a different software. I am not saying that it's better than Win7. But it's different. That's Apple's USP. If you want that different software, you have to get it only from Apple. There is no price competition here. Then they also control the whole eco-system. This is same also for iPhone.

What Samsung is trying to do is to get the people think that they are using a GalaxyS-phone, not just a generic Android. Almost all new phone are dual/quad cores. People don't care that Exynos is so much more powerful than Tegra. They will see that both phones have quad core, that's all. They will also see that both phones uses 720p screen - PenTile or Plus means absolutely nothing to them. What is the unique proposition that would tilt them to buy SGS3 and not an HOX or Xperia? That's not hardware, it would be software features that Samsung implemented that would allow customers to make that choice.

Also note that Samsung is making a huge push for it's own eco-system. They have their app market, and they are pushing it a lot (http://www.smartappchallenge.com/eng/main.do). They now have their own music store with about 17 million songs. Also have a video hub and maybe also a game hub. What this implies is that they want people to get into their own samsung system and sell their content.

Why they have TouchWiz and not vanilla ICS? It's because they want people to experience this phone as a GalaxyS-phone, and not just any Android phone.