The pointing device doesn't suck, just the defaults (and probably the graphical configuration tools - I always use CLI and editing config files but most open-source GUIs are horrible). If you're willing to spend 5-10 minutes tweaking, you can get exactly the same performance or better just by playing around with some settings.
You're right, after tinkering around I also found settings that are ok.
But that's only part of it. There are so many things that just work better on macOS, e.g. the "tap-to-stop" or "vertical-scrolling".
I also think that the App developers should not have to shoulder this. App developers have way better things to do than care about touchpad events... like fixing issues and developing new features. I don't see where smooth scrolling should be an App feature...
That's only going to affect part of your apps though. Last I checked, Firefox on Ubuntu finally had a kind of pixel-perfect scrolling, but it wasn't smooth and didn't keep momentum if you let go of the trackpad while scrolling fast. That just feels bad, even after getting used to it.
And Qt apps will scroll differently than the GNOME project's apps which will scroll differently than other Gtk apps. It really feels disorganized and unfinished.
