1) I actually like Red Delicious. There's nothing wrong with them. I find most apples are too sour and a fresh Red Delicious is not bad food. I prefer pears anyway but that's another matter. 2) It takes 3 years before an apple tree bears any fruit; 7 before it bears enough to break even on harvesting. Meanwhile, there's no upper age on apple trees like there are on some other orchard crops. Those red delicious trees planted back in the 1890s are still producing apples. So while there has undoubtedly been grafting and selection and other shit associated with making the red delicious less delicious, a tree planted in 1990 is currently in its absolute prime. 3) Now you know why cider became a thing. The farmers will wait you out, fickle rejectors of heirloom fruit. Expecting an orchard crop to bend to the whims of fashion is folly at its finest.
Ah yes, I vaguely remember a documentary on Netflix about monoculture that went into the origins of cider, coming from the rather non-delicious nature of wild apples.