There's a third factor - Steve was very good at active listening. He oozed it in interviews.

I saw it big time when Walt Mossberg made some comment about "Oh, we can't say that". Steve latched onto him like a pitbull - "Why not?". Walt said "Well, people get annoyed. They write ... letters".

You could just see Steve's thinking - "I don't understand what he's saying, or why he's saying it. Figure out why."

You can also see it, indirectly, if you watch him when he was talking tech. He's well known to not be a great techie, but he knew quite a bit. Maybe he was just well briefed, but I think it was because he knew to ask questions to the guys who were briefing him.