That's not really a fair characterization. 1990s Apple did indeed only iterate its Macs until Jobs returned, but they absolutely didn't stop trying to innovate

That's not really a fair characterization. 1990s Apple did indeed only iterate its Macs until Jobs returned, but they absolutely didn't stop trying to innovate – they just didn't do it with focus. I mean, Apple invented the PDA without its co-founder at the helm, and repeatedly tried to put a revolutionary operating system on the Mac, but failed due to institutional bloat and uncertain leadership.