Not to interrupt the "Apple buyer are sophisticated high status individuals" talk but Goldman is losing money on the Apple card precisely because they are lending to people that can't make the payments.
There were reports (OTOH from late 2023 or early 2024) that GS not being a consumer-facing credit business created a lot of headaches and need for spending.
GS did have some other cards before Apple Card, but they were not generally marketed or widely available to the masses like Apple Card. GS wasn’t well prepared for the extra overhead and customer support, and Apple negotiated a _lot_ of power that GS agreed to give them in areas like underwriting decisions. Apple wanted applications approved and many approvals wouldn’t have met with GS’s typical risk tolerance.
