I think the true lesson to learn from the CEOs who weren’t Steve Jobs was that one of them had the foresight to get Steve Jobs back, after he had proven he was a keen leader with NeXt and especially with Pixar.

NeXt was not doing well financially, and neither was Pixar until Toy Story came out. He also did not run Pixar in any meaningful way.

He was very engaged in the business side, and kept close contact on the creative side but knew to leave well alone.

Pixar is a great example of Jobs understanding what he should NOT be doing, and not doing it. That must take incredible discipline.

Clearly you're not as keen business-wise as noted terrible CEO Gil Amelio, who correctly saw that NeXt being in the dumpster was a good thing, since they needed its software, not its revenues.

I'm not sure I understand your point. Yes, likely if NeXT had been doing better financially Apple couldn't have afforded it. You can check NeXT's aborted S-1 here.[1] They had an accumulated deficit of $273 million as of a few month's earlier, were almost out of cash, and were losing money.

Apple's purchase price of $400 million was not exactly a bonanza to their investors...

[1]https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...