You're looking back with all the knowledge and information today, the NeXT computer was for all it's glory just a black box. At the time Apple did not have anything like what you see now, that didn't come until the 1998 iMac and only because of Ive.

Steve Jobs would have literally done anything to save Apple, you only need to watch the 1997 Macworld Expo to see how far he was willing to go. Those people absolutely hated Gates and you can guarantee you would have seen Michael Dell on that stage if it had gone the other way.

With that said Mac Clones were a thing, Jobs even tried to keep those deals going but they did not make sense at the time. Apple for all its worth was both a hardware and software company and the clone makers would have been competition anyways.