I find it entirely reasonable that research shows consumers don't want products that don't work very well. The text I quoted explicitly called out that it would be a software compatibility nightmare.

So then what modularity do they think consumers do care about?

And yes, that was exactly what everyone was saying from the beginning: it's infeasible to do what Ara was dreamt up to do.

Sure, I can find that section of the article for you:

"Which brings us to the most important question still facing Project Ara: what the hell kind of modules are people going to build? Woolridge and his team took their user research to the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona in February, where they started showing it to potential partners: carriers, tech companies, fashion brands, everyone.

Turns out they all have ideas. Better speakers, flashlights, panic buttons, fitness trackers, projectors, app-shortcut buttons, kickstands, a million other things. Some are incredibly high-tech—pro-level cameras clearly fascinate the Ara team, and they all get excited at the idea of replacing my hideous tape recorder with a microphone module—but some aren’t. Bertrand shows me a small compact case for storing makeup, and a small hollow pillbox. They’re also building “style” modules, which don’t do anything except look nice. Apparently, when given the opportunity to make anything that plugs into their phone, people come up with some pretty useless ideas."

> potential partners... Carriers, tech companies, fashion brands

Aka the people whose weird priorities got us to this position (needing/wanting Ara) to begin with?