this is not how they are in person, or were. Forstall oversaw a conniving political maneuver nuisance crossing division boundaries and causing serious infighting that was resolved by reorg when he left. Cook and Jobs (having interacted with both) just were positivity-obsessed guys averse to that noise, and I think without evidence perhaps Forstall got intolerable when his old protector had passed.
also, no one is mentioning the behind the scenes participants with far longer engineering creds than Forstall, because it's just pop-culturally easy to simplify the little era into salacious snippets not aligned with reality.
> Forstall oversaw a conniving political maneuver nuisance crossing division boundaries and causing serious infighting that was resolved by reorg when he left.
That's in line with what I said.
> Jobs (having interacted with both) just were positivity-obsessed guys averse to that noise
That's not the Steve Jobs I remember. ;-) Anyway, you don't explain why Jobs protected Forstall in the first place. My understanding is that Jobs encouraged some internal arguing and conflict, whereas Cook discourages it.
> no one is mentioning the behind the scenes participants with far longer engineering creds than Forstall
Mention them in what context? I mean, the Lenin/Stalin thing is just a silly metaphor. The serious point is that Forstall, mentioned by the OP, didn't get fired for incompetence, and Maps was just as excuse, a point that you seem to agree with. But if you're aware of people with longer engineering creds than Forstall who did get fired for incompetence, then I'd be interested to hear about it.
also, no one is mentioning the behind the scenes participants with far longer engineering creds than Forstall, because it's just pop-culturally easy to simplify the little era into salacious snippets not aligned with reality.