The unified GPU and unified memory design was pretty important. They just didn’t go and replace intel, they replaced AMD/NVIDIA also. The GPUs in high end Apple silicon are even good enough for mid model inference, and unified memory makes it somewhat cost effective…that advantage probably wasn’t planned and comes from just a lot of good execution and smart R&D.

To be fair, Apple HATES Nvidia after the 8400M and 9400M debacle. They probably saw replacing Nvidia as a bigger benefit than replacing Intel.