You're right it did take a lot of convincing and hustling. It didn't take product vision from Jobs to make the Apple II a success however. Look at all the products Jobs tried to produce through his "vision," they all failed until the iPod.
You're probably right that it wasn't the design aesthetic that counted, but Jobs' customer focus was still very important.
For those that haven't had the privilege, first move the monitor and Disk II units off, then grasp the back of the top cover of the Apple II, and lift up. There will be a ripping of Velcro.
It's surprising that no one else ever seemed to copy this, and not something that'd ever occurred to me until now.