I think you're attributing more grandeur to Apple's decisions than is warranted.

Apple's iPhone was not the first phone to use a touchscreen - that goes to IBM in the 90s. Apple did produce a PDA the same year with a touchscreen, though it used a stylus-based touchscreen. During that time touch tech was still developing. If you follow the overall evolution of touchscreens, Apple actually deployed its touchscreen phone about as early as they could - probably because every other company was also eyeing making one but were waiting until touchscreens were cheaper and more reliable.

It also was not the first smartphone. Again, that IBM phone with a touch screen also had e-mail capability, a calendar, and various other features, and phones being able to access the web and play games along with various PDA functions was almost standard as we got into the 2000s.

The touchscreen rectangle smartphone was already on the way - Apple just grabbed the bag first.

What Apple consistently does is act brashly by deploying a usually obvious future product before the tech is actually developed enough to fully support it. They then sell it at a stupidly high price which trims off who buys to mostly just futurists with rose-tinted glasses on. It's a very effective strategy to get credit for innovation and leading the future while avoiding bad PR, and it fools massive amounts of people.

Apple is a company that is insanely good at corporate strategy. In fact, if there's anything that Apple has truly pioneered, it's the modern predatory, anti-repair, designed obsolescence fashion-tech environment we currently see.