It was however intentionally crippled to not allow arbitrary application-level multitasking because Apple decided it didn't serve them well. So as far as a normal user was concerned the OS was incapable of multitasking.
So while inaccurate, that statement is not entirely off. You could not create an application and reliably have it do stuff in the background on iOS.
Apart from that I have to disagree with your statement: I find the rest entirely reasonable and valid criticism. And I have no doubt about the conclusion: The future of iOS will be more blatant stealing from Android.
And that is OK. Really it is. Just stop that nonsense about Apple being the innovator.