Yeah, like Steve Jobs making sure the NeXT factory looked pretty by painting the robots is an example of silliness because NeXT failed. Yet if Apple showed that off in a product video today, it would be held up as attention to detail.
NeXT didn't really fail. They had a reasonably profitable exit by being bought by a large tech company, and subsequently basically took over the acquiring company and drove it to become incredibly successful.
But of course the popular image of NeXT is that it failed, so your point still stands entirely.
And perhaps most importantly, while it was an independent company, NeXT was operating under a very restrictive non-compete agreement that forced them to go after only low-volume segments.
NeXT's acquisition valuation was far below the valuations it accepted investment at years before. I'm pretty sure it was a net loss for its investors, if not directly that certainly on an opportunity cost basis.
