Say what you will about Steve Jobs. The guy was a brilliant con man. He was exceptionally good at taking existing technology, making it seem like he invented it, and then hyping the shit out of it. Apple no longer has anyone like that. They've become boring.
The thing you are missing or forgetting is that just like most great inventions... His innovations were all "that seems obvious why didn't I think of that?"
While I totally agree they for sure had marketing and that hipster vibe going for it, they were different in that Steve saw the products as a typical user would. Even today tech still has common sense usability issues, you can practically see how UIs and software are designed by an engineer rather that a typical user. Its just human nature you make things in a way that makes sense to YOU. Problem is most people are not software programmers.
I remember when the iPod came out and took over the world. There were good MP3 players out there, iPod still got cudos for ease of use. All the techies declared drag and drop into file explorer was as easy as it gets. Apple was all brainwashing marketing. I was in that camp, I thought files and folders made sooooo much sense and were easy or at least as easy as crappy itunes.
After I tried to explain the concept of files and folders on a computer, comparing it to physical files and folders (which seems obvious) and receiving nothing but blank stares and empty nods of "understanding"... it occurred to me.... Many people just don't think that way and what an easy concept for me was difficult to others. I was the engineer, confident my way made sense and was easy... though in practical terms to "normal" people it was not.
Steve Jobs had a vision of what these devices would be for the typical person, he focused on doing the few important things well... battery, camera, email, internet, integration with other apple products... and he was right. He built a good and easy "just works" products for normal people... the 90% and not wasting nearly as much time and effort on the 10%.