Legere repackaged contracts slightly and sold it as snake oil. For the vast majority of customers, their contracts had the exact same impact. A two-year payment plan (which is, you guessed it, a "contract") on the phone which "immediately becomes due" if you cancel your plan is identical to the early termination fee that had previously been offered by everyone else, just in a slightly less bundled fashion.

If, like most people, you were buying a phone from your carrier, the cost at early termination was near identical. Verizon's ETF already reduced each month left on your phone's upgrade period, just like a phone payment plan would have.

Legere's a Jobsian marketing genius, but only because he managed to sell people the status quo as something new.