It's hard to ever truly "love" a first episode of a show when you first watch it. You don't have an attachment for the characters. I had the same "didn't love it/didn't hate it" reaction to the first episode of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones, they didn't hook me until later on.

Personally I usually watch the first 3 or 4 episodes, if it hasn't hooked me after the fourth episode then it's not for me. Or if I actively dislike it because you can tell the writing is bad (see Rings of Power, I quit half way through the third episode because I was so bored and tons of things jut didn't make sense).

It's the problem with mystery type shows. Once the mystery is out they tend to lose what made them special in the first place. I really hope they can pull it off and keep it interesting though.

Maybe a full aquicistion would have been too much, but a partnership or something where they helped develop Disney+ and get new suscribers while sharing revenue with Disney for providing the content.

Disney is more mainstream and has broader appeal than HBO, seems like better content for Apple.

It would have made sense a few years ago, having Apple develop Disney+ (who has a lot more experience developing software) and bundling it with iPhones and whatnot.