There are different ways to make money, some more impressive than others. Compare e.g. painting a painting and selling it, vs mugging an old lady in the street.
So you’re comparing Apple being able to ship phones that are three years ahead of the competition in terms of speed and laptops that are quieter, faster, with 3x the battery life, and don’t get hot enough to brew coffee to a mugging?
No I'm comparing past Microsoft to present Microsoft. Backwards compatibility was a more impressive way to make money than... whatever it is Microsoft is doing these days.
The only reason I "upgraded" my Windows last time was exactly because Microsoft broke compatibility (some new app required the latest version of whatever library that wasn't backported).