Is this really only about keeping secrets for surprise launches? I have a hard time seeing how that alone could justify so extreme an imposition on people.

We're talking about police-state levels of secrecy and compartmentalization. This obviously has a huge cost, so assuming the policy is rational it must have an even huger value. Valuable as surprise launches may be, are they that valuable? Or is there more to this, in which case what is it?

Apple's success is inarguable; I'm not dismissing what they do but taking for granted that I don't understand it. But the author's claim that it is all about occasional theatrical events seems incommensurate with the depth of the phenomenon and how ironclad it is.