I used to be an Apple store employee in the Family room (where the devices get fixed). In fact I used to work as the exact employee who mainly checked people in for their appointment. The store I worked in had an extremely high volume of people coming in for repairs. Our store policy was, if the person had missed their entire appointment (E.g. 15 minutes late for mac appointments and 10 minutes late for mobile) then they would be turned away, except for in exceptional circumstances (multiple repairs etc).

We reserved some appointments each day for "walk-ins" and these became available every hour, however they were immediately snapped up within 5 minutes of become available.

My point is that, this is a reservation, much like an eye checkup or dentist appointment. If you miss your reservation, that is your responsibility and not ours to try and fit you in. The booking process is explicit in reminding you not to be late.

If the OP genuinely did get turned away for being 5 minutes late, then that is quite harsh, however I think its more likely that he missed his allotted appointment time and in that case it is 100% his fault for not making it. And oh yeah bringing up the Steve Jobs point is so irrelevant and is just hyperbole.

The recall itself is another matter which IS Apple's responsibility and probably should have been handled better.