Compare directly to the 64k IIe, then. $595 vs $1200, according to Wikipaedia.
Anyway, my point is not to take anything away from Apple or Jobs, but it's a stretch to say that they were so far ahead of everyone else. If you need a hero for rhetorical purposes, try Jack Tramiel :-)
But I don't care about what was going on 5 years later. My point is that when the Apple II came out (not the IIe or the Mac or any other Apple product) they were miles ahead everyone else, and it was a product that in theory could have sold itself, but still needed a kick-ass salesperson to get off the ground. What happened years later is totally irrelevant to this point.
Anyway, my point is not to take anything away from Apple or Jobs, but it's a stretch to say that they were so far ahead of everyone else. If you need a hero for rhetorical purposes, try Jack Tramiel :-)