I also have some very serious doubts about Tim Cook's abilities as a CEO.

However, it's quite obvious that AR is the next UX frontier:

Historic UX frontiers:

#1: text/console/terminal

#2: Graphical UI with a mouse (Apple sorta owned this at first)

#3: Mobile graphical UI with a capacitive touch screen (Apple owned this, at first)

#3.5 VR (but putting on a helmet is quite a bit too hardcore for mass adoption)

#4: AR

This progression is because of the 3.5 VR step quite obvious even to Tim Cook. So, I don't really doubt the claims that he's been doubling down on AR @ Apple. It all makes sense.

And once he has given the command, I have no doubt that the Apple company has enough talented people in each of the required competency areas to pull it off.

Perhaps the most important thing here is that a) Apple has lots of money, b) Apple/Cook has lots and lots of pressure to come up with the new thing.

I think we currently are in that particular place that doesn't require lots and lots of executive vision and taste.