Of course it worked out, half the people here run the latest version of NeXTStep on their phones and pads, another half run it on their desktops, and NeXT is considered the most successful contemporary computer company and is dominating the industry in innovation, all possible because of the AppKit and FoundationKit and the various NS kit APIs that came since then. They even acquired their closest rival, rebranded according to their trademark, and then deep sixed the rivals products, replacing them with their own.