Microsoft had a stylus and a word processor on PocketPC handhelds long before the iPhone, and Apple had them on the Newton, though Palm was there first....

Going back to 1989, Microsoft had a stylus-operated tablet with the GRiDPad, which was running MS-DOS with Extensions for Pen Computing.

SketchPad was innovative. Otherwise, such claims generally tend to illustrate that the claimant doesn't know enough computer history...

Well, I agree with them not being innovators but they definitely made a marketable product. It's the same thing for which business circles praise Apple. Apple turn already known things into a marketable package which is not so different from what Microsoft did here. That's what being a device manufacturer is about.

Innovations come in small bursts. Take the Surface Hub as an example.

I get that people like the product. I guess my problem is if everything is innovation than nothing is.

May "innovation" is just an irrelevant marketing claim. The claim, whether true or false, doesn't make the product better.