Apple does have relatively good live collaboration in its iWork apps. Perhaps there’s a future API there?
Does it? As much as i like the iWork apps, my experience (and impression of the general sentiment) has shown that Google Docs et al continues to blow the pants off iWork in that regard
I would agree that collaboration is a little smoother in G Suite, however in my experience this is mostly about ease of sharing. Once you've gotten another Apple user to understand that they can "receive a shared document from you" and work on it, then usually collaboration itself is smooth.
N.B, "SubEthaEdit had this for years!" - I know.
As a whole, it could be argued that where Wave failed, Slack - and predecessors like Basecamp - succeeded.
iWork has always seemed like it has a different user in mind with its collaborative features and never really had much traction in the market, which is already served by offerings whose entire reason for being is collaboration, not just as a general productivity suite.
FWIW, I first saw collaborative editing over a network done on an Amiga. So I guess this has been a thing for "decades."
Mind blown.
(I was born in '86, albeit late in the year, so I find this especially hilarious.)