Accelerate is a really amazing and highly underrated framework. Sure the function names are, uh, sub optimal (I'm looking at you, vDSP). That said, having a framework guaranteed across all devices to implement algorithms and primitives in the fastest way for each new device as they come out is amazingly valuable.
I've built production systems over the last few years with it that really wouldnt have been possible without it.
Just to provide a little context for the vDSP function names, vecLib predates OS X--it was part of OS 9--and the vDSP interfaces descend from the SAL library at Mercury; like LAPACK and BLAS, they needed to be short for Fortran 77 compatibility.
I've built production systems over the last few years with it that really wouldnt have been possible without it.