Maybe not directly an opposing opinion, but I'll point out that Apple makes more money than any ad, email, or social media company, so I think it's hard to argue that Apple has somehow screwed up as a business.

In other words, to me it seems reasonable to think that they affirmatively chose a strategy that has worked out for them--not that their strategy was forced upon them by their shortcomings.

I would also quibble with your characterization that there is some difference between the ad, email, or a social network worlds. Google and Facebook are ad companies--look at their revenue. Apple is not.

I will say that I don't think Steve Jobs set out 18 years ago to turn Apple into a privacy company. I think it's reasonable to say that Apple concentrated on products and services, and discovered privacy as a differentiating strategy along the way.

But it's just as true to say that Google and Facebook discovered data-driven advertising along the way too. Both projects started out without a business model at all.