When implementing the Mute switch, Apple had to decide which of a user’s conflicting commands to obey, and they chose the behavior that they believed would make sense to the most people in the most situations.
via marco.org
Exactly. I would say Apple’s ethos is always about making sensible decisions during the design process. They get this right in the great majority of cases and lots of people love them for it. Some don’t, and that’s fine as well.