what is a lazy old audiophile to do?

If you want lazy - take a look at my system. I buy a CD online - it arrives in the mail - I open the packet - I throw it in the changer and that is it. Done! CD stays preserved in pristine condition and no messing around with "importing" it to ITunes or some other music server. I play music from the listening position with a wireless keyboard and trackball.

My sense so far (after several attempts to find anyone at Apple who is knowledgeable) is that Apple doesn't care much about this stuff. Seems kind of short-sighted.

Apple is quite highly regarded in audio. iTunes has been extremely succesful for them. So has the iPod. You could not be more off the mark about Apple. If anything it is the major labels and Microsoft that are short sighted...

have you ever had any of your changers modded or tweaked?

No as I mentioned - I am pretty lazy. My philosophy is that if it doesn't work well enough then I buy better designed gear (I don't lack funds). I use the same logic for cables and ic's - if my system ain't working well enough then I am not likely to band aid it with esoteric cables or to "mod" it to try and tweak the sound. The horror of it all is that I find the modern Sony changers are not all that bad - even raw out of the box and without an external DAC (although the most recent models sound a bit harsh (is it jitter?) compared to the early 2000's models which were good sounding out of the box - so YMMV substantially depending on the year the Sony changer was built). Speakers and room acoustics make ENORMOUS differences in my book. I'd probably be relatively happy with nearly any digital source...often sound pretty good for my tin ears (although CD recordings is another matter - many of them are crap - especially modern recordings of pop and rock). I would, however, be extremely unhappy with most speakers, which I find dreadfully deficient in most cases. Probably all because of my "tin ears".