True. I considered clarifying, but didn't to be concise. I think publication as a reasoning for granting patents is superseded. It's mostly relevant to the history of patents, not the present.
You can't be secretive about a UI, or the chemical composition of a drug.
There are competitors with less name recognition, but arguably a better product (WD40 is great for water displacement, but it isn't very good for most of the things people use it for).
Or it's kept as a trade secret.