No ones pretending they’re new.

Apple doesn’t do new hotness. It finds experimental tech and if it can make it great then it’ll grab it. It’s always at a minimum 5 years behind new developments. As you point out sometimes decades.

I consider that their greatest strength though. Taking something with potential and starting to realize that potential.

If they work better now (maybe limitations in the past like transfer speeds), what’s the problem?

Technically no, the PalmPilot didn't use NFC and required fussy button presses and pointing so it's a much better implementation.