Worth adding that exFAT has aspects that Microsoft hold patents for. Yes they do license for a flat fee, though not aware Apple holds such a license. Also it wasn't until circa 2009 that the SDCARD collective adopted it as a standard. That and wasn't until 2013 that a GPL Linux driver was available.

So yes, very unfair to bash Apple about over this, you raise valid concerns.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ExFAT