I agree.
Apple has never been about being first or big specs. It's always been about presenting a product that is going to appeal to people and which will have made whatever they decide to put in their devices better.
This drives competitors and those who use competitors' products CRAZY.
As a consumer and as an IT professional, I don't CARE that WebOS introduced gestures and I laugh at Blackberry people up in arms about Apple "stealing" what they claim was "their" idea. I care about Apple making it work. I don't care that NFC had been around for literally years before Apple introduced Apple Pay. I care about Apple bringing it to the US and guiding its acceptance in the US. Just like I didn't care that Zune existed before the iPod. Like I didn't care that touch screens existed before the first iPhone. Like I didn't care that the Pebble existed before the Apple Watch. I care that it's made it a perfect mate to my phone. I don't care that Good Technologies had been managing enterprise communications for years. I care that it works ten times better with my iPhone than it did with my Samsung.
Apple has come in and perfected those products that people use. In a sense, Apple sees what will become ubiquitous and improves it by either adding a level of simplicity to the UI/UX or adding a minimalistic style that is instantly appealing.
This year, I feel that Apple lost their way a little bit with the design of the X by having that notch there. I believe Steve would not have allowed that design. For me it resulted in not getting the X. But I don't have any concern about its implementation of Face ID, they saw others fumble it and I feel they will make it work. They similarly will have a beautiful approach to gestures after seeing WebOS a long time ago.
So Apple is not an innovator in new tech or specs. That's not why I've dropped everything else and kept Apple. They're masters at making things work well, simply, minimalistic, with a style that appeals to me.
Seems millions and millions of people, companies, and government agencies agree with their approach.