I think you both have a piece of it. I think the real problem is one of political orientation. Republicans, being basically private sector oriented and acculturated, get marketing in a way Democrats just don’t and have contacts with the best, most evil, marketing people. People who know how to sell packaging and labels and branding without much regard to the quality of the product.
Democrats, being basically public sector oriented and acculturated get policy in a way Republicans don’t and etc. etc. etc.
The problem is that each side thinks marketing and policy are the same thing. Republicans think slogans are policy and Democrats think good policy is good marketing, that good policy just sells itself because everyone will just see how awesome it is. And worse, though Republicans think marketing is the same thing as policy and Democrats think good policy is good marketing, Republicans basically abhor policy as icky, awful, evil government stuff while Democrats basically abhor marketing as grubby, greedy, icky grifty business stuff.
And thus we have the endless cycle of Republicans winning on marketing, fucking things up by treating marketing as policy, Democrats winning and fixing the fuckups with good policy and then losing because they think good policy sells itself, rinse repeat. The only way it ever gets broken is for Democrats to suck up their public sector inhibitions and actually consort with the kind of evil marketing people who make people think there’s a meaningful difference between Polygrip and Fixodent and air fryers work.