Apple literally had that in their ads.
Today, a genuine virus is a rare thing, most malware are trojans. But back then viruses were the dominant form of malware. It's quite unfair to criticize people claiming Macs don't get "viruses" by changing the context on them to include all malware. That's not the claim people made.
By that time the user restriction model of Vista had existed for 8 years.
Also, back then the difference between MacOS and Windows was pretty stark so this was a valid marketing point. Not that the ads didn't oversell it, of course.
I think that marketing language is a bit BS-y, though.
Probably the general idea they are pushing, that iOS is less susceptible to malware than a laptop, is probably true, so it doesn't bother me much.