I’ll come to the defense of Arkansas Blacks. They are definitely better than Red Delicious. They’re just really hard and quite tart with a faint green flesh. Red Delicious are mealy and tasteless.
I love the Arkansas Blacks, but they wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
I took up the Arkansas Black cause from my grandmother who was born in the 1800's. They are unarguably hard. That contributes to them being amazing baking apples. Unfortunately whoever created this list of apples seems to have never considered eating apples that were baked in foods. Not even a mention of baking apples vs. eating apples appears on the site. Some varieties are good for baking and eating. Then there are those worthless for either (ie. red delicious.)
I love the Arkansas Blacks, but they wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.