FOR FUCKS SAKE YOU FUCKING PEOPLE WILL NEVER FUCKING GET IT
The All Things Apple forum is in the SOFTWARE category... he's talking about the hardware which count as gadgets/gear. If you people can't figure out the difference between hardware and software then something is fucking wrong with your brain.
Do you realize there is no one forum category that would fit everything related to Apple? We would either need a couple of different apple forums (hardware, software, consumer, etc) or a new category. So they stuffed it in "software" and added the "all things" in front of the name to make sure we know it is for, well, all things concerning Apple products.
They probably would have chosen a more logical title like "Apple software" if they wanted it to be only for software.
Really, if you think about it logically, it makes more sense than your theory. If there is an official stand then I retract what I said.
EDIT: another possibility is they could do away with any Apple category, but people feel something special (usually either love or hate) about the OS and the Apple products, so it gets its own bubble.
Also, the mods have always said OT is not a catchall for anything that doesn't quite fit in other forums; as far as I know, it's "best fit" that counts. i.e., if your topic has more to do with apple software than off topic issue (a
social category forum), you would be better posting it there.