The survival of the fittest.

Bose = listening contour bef accuracy
Bose = 1 box simplicity consumers love
Bose = marketing, marketing, marketing
Bose = legal action against poor reviews
Bose = all for brand building and loyalty

In many ways Bose were Apple before Apple.

Expensive for what you got, but what you got wasn't necessarily bad.

Tekton make speakers, they are not Apple. They might not want to be.

Every company needs some luck with timing.

Bose got lucky. So did Apple. Many others did not.

The key words seem to be an impression of prestige, simplicity, and familiarity. All of which go towards establishing long term brand loyalty.

Once you have that, you've made it and it's yours to lose.

Isn't it Bowers & Wilkins, Sony, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Quad, Wilson, ATC etc?

For any of these established companies to fail now would require major strategic errors or some major shifts in the market place.

I agree with the OP in that actual sound quality is far from the main selling point.
Impressions and reputations count for much, much more.

You'd think that the iphone 12 would flop due to its outdated design, lack of innovation and poor battery life, but far from it. It's been a huge seller so far.

As I said, once you've established yourself, it's yours to lose. Even a minor misstep like paying way, way over the odds for Beats is only a hiccup.

Even Tim Crook knows that. 

marketing is king, being loose with review samples, the few rags we rely on need advertising to survive so when they don’t like a product that spends what can they do? Lie? Maybe just don’t review them or gloss over the negatives and focus on the parts they like, blame poor performance on associated equipment etc.

success comes from becoming a household name 

The survival of the pushiest.

If sound were paramount active Studio monitors would be fancied up to look nice so the significant other doesn't have a cow.

I think the OP may be overlooking what @mapman suggested about good speaker manufacturers chugging along despite a lack of major marketing. Ohm, Decware, Spatial, Reference 3A, and other small manufacturerers have lasted for decades because of loyal fan bases for well made products. Marketing has nothing to do with it.