I started coding in 1981 on an VC20, learned a lot from it, but wonder how did the world benefit more from vic20s?
As a happy smartphone user, I think the world did benefit a lot e.g. from the Newton (loved mine, dropped a Palm for it, sad it died, but it was too heavy).
An execrable membrane keyboard machine with 1k of ram inspires you to somehow make a working DonkyKong.
The iphone can do anything but doesn't let the user do anything. It exists to sell you finished solutions to problems. You don't even get to choose the problems let alone the form the solution takes.
The 1k Sinclair can't do much, but doesn't impose any artificial limits or proscriptions either. It not only allows you do to anything you want but demands it. It offers practically no finished solutions.
No matter how limited the hardware, the options are actually infinite because you can do whatever you want with that hardware, and that open-endedness causes people to explore it and try to fill it.
If I'd had an iphone as a kid, maybe I'd still be the same kind of person and develop the same kinds of skills with the help of some other tools besides my iphone, but we'll never know. What happened was I had a 4k trs-80 that objectively sucked and yet absorbed 100% of my time, and none of that time was passive consumption.