If you don't like/agree/see value in this persons comment then why are you engaging with them? That's how silly your position sounds.
Now back to the substance of your comment.
>Or maybe different people have different needs and don’t care if every device is “open”.
How could "not open" be a need of someone?
>These are tools. Does the tool do what I want with the least amount of friction? That’s what they care about.
How does an Apple engineer documenting the design add friction in any way to what you're doing?
> Indeed Apples existence and continually pushing computing in new areas has benefited everyone in the last 40 years - whether you use Apple or not.
Apple has helped popularize the smartphone as a consumer device to consume music/media, do light business on (emails, IM, documents, etc) and do a few minor creative tasks digitally such as drawing, music, etc. They do get a lot of credit for that. They have also co-created an application platform for other businesses to sell software. But then they robbed 30% of their sales too - They get negative credit for being so greedy.
Your argument that they have "continually pushed computing" is a bit of a stretch. Give us your best argument/examples/facts.