It was a good opportunity for the NeXT technology to buy a company with a good and recognizable image, Apple, and get paid in doing so. Hey, Apple had a lot of bad direction for a long time. That's possible with poor upper leadership, beginning with the BOD, when you're profitable enough to deny the fact that you should have been much more profitable and successful. It's easier to take such shots from not having been a part of it. The situation may have much more of two sides.
All great companies have their major problems on occasion.
Look how close Chrysler came to going under. Microsoft had their style of machine and Apple had theirs. But Microsoft chose to go after the Apple style by moving in on it and negotiating rights to it with critical 'fine print' passages. Up until then, Microsoft users had steadfastly held out against Apple's GUI as being 'candy' and not productive. They all changed their tunes as Microsoft came closer and closer to what Apple had.