I thought Jobs himself said he was kind of ignorant the first time around.
Maybe so. In the sense that he was far too trusting of people he brought into Apple like John Sculley, only to see them oust him from the company. Back then, they sidelined him and scuttled Jobs' decisions. For instance, he wanted to price the Mac cheaply below $2000 but the board priced it mid-$2500 and up. Lots of bad decisions were made after Jobs was ousted. His return showed him as a smarter man not allowing others to take control away from him again.