It doesn’t. Messages fallback to SMS when I talk to my parents or friends who don’t have an iPhone and… it works. I can send text, photos, etc. and it works. Some accusations are ridiculous, like how white on green is somehow illegible compared to white on blue? Come on.
Only if "low quality blurry images and video" is your definition of "it works". Or maybe you've just never checked what the image actually looks like on the receiving phone.
