Yes, you're totally missing the point, but you said it yourself: "it seems that he only had taste in choosing among the good designs of others" That's all it

Yes, you're totally missing the point, but you said it yourself: "it seems that he only had taste in choosing among the good designs of others" That's all it was--a matter of taste, and his was the very, very best. He had an order of magnitude capability in expressing his taste into product visions that he forced into the world, sure on the backs of others, but nonetheless.