Why does Apple Books not permit sharing of highlighted text?

I regularly copy and share highlights of books I read using the iOS Kindle app but only recently discovered that Apple Books doesn’t permit this. You can share your notes, but the accompanying highlighted passage is left behind.

The Kindle app, in contrast, gives you numerous options for sharing and exporting notes and highlights, even going so far as giving your selected passages a choice of social-media-ready graphic formats.

The only answer I’ve found says it’s a DRM issue, suggesting publishers are at least partially to blame. But I’ve never encountered this with a Kindle book bought from Amazon, and Apple and Amazon pricing are frequently exactly the same.

If the inability to share highlights is an Apple Books feature and not a bug, then I’m done splitting my book buying between Apple and Amazon. At this point, the only advantage Apple Books has over the Kindle app is a more streamlined purchasing process.

I have been a dedicated Mac user for 20 years. Apple is losing its luster. “It just works” used to be more than braggadocio; it used to be a largely accurate description of an Apple user experience marked by forward progress.

It’s a shame that the best capitalized company in the world continues to move in the wrong direction, letting quality and user experience suffer as it strikes off in new directions like the launch of an also-ran streaming service like Apple TV.