Apple hasn't done anything. What this really shows is that Bitcoin-related companies are the people who are innovating in crypto payments rather than billionaires like Musk and Tim Cook.
It's a little unfortunate though that this expects people to be using Bitcoin primarily as an asset rather than a currency. It is similar to if you deposited gold and a card agreed to spent fiat money for you based on how much gold is in your account. Ideally, Bitcoin's transaction fees and confirmation time will become low enough that an intermediary like BitPay won't be necessary to spend it at retailers.
Well BitPay didn't really "innovate" anything here as well, they just added Apple Pay as one of their payment methods with regards on adding funds to their account so technically there is nothing about making Bitcoin as a payment method here. Also I know where you are coming from but tbh I don't think its these companies' fault on why they aren't making Bitcoin as an accepted payment method since they have to consider a lot of things from the volatile price of Bitcoin to also considering the capital gains tax they will incur when they try to accept Bitcoin directly that is why we say Steam pulled out from accepting Bitcoin because of this situation. For me Bitcoin and the whole crypto market is doing fine if this bull market will be going longer I think it will attract more and more people in the market. The more people we have in the industry the more chances we have for mass adoption.
I am sure Steam regrets removing Bitcoin payments after this recent surge. They lost x4 - x5 the price of each game that would be bought since then.
In fact most companies will not care from where the money comes from, BitPay will send them FIAT after all so there are not dealing with Bitcoin directly.