The problem is that in order to send media or messages between devices and not deal with unreasonable compression of the media, both parties need to be on the same messenger or protocol. I send pictures between my Android and my brother's iPhone no problem, but we're both using Google's Hangouts protocol (not sure what app he's using on his phone). Apple solves this between Apple devices by using the Messages protocol. It can be argued that the resistance of Apple users to use anything else (WhatsApp, Hangouts, Allo, etc) to communicate to people outside of that walled garden is causing slow adoption of alternate protocol for this. Apple users saying "use this or you don't get high quality pictures" is just as argumentative non-iPhone people trying to force iPhone users to use an alternate protocol.
We get it, using Messages you don't have to make a choice between SMS or a data protocol. Guess what - there's a world outside Apple and everybody needs to play together if we want to have open lines of communication and sharing of media. We're sorry that our choice of device doesn't fit into Apple's way of doing things. If you want to blame an entity, blame Apple for keeping their protocol so closed for so long.