You are correct. Perhaps ‘ripoff’ was a tad strong.
The inspiration that led to the Mac was languishing at Xerox. Apple saw the potential of the desktop metaphor with graphical user interface, the ease of use of point and click via mouse versus memorizing code, and expanded greatly upon it, with the permission of Xerox. Even their first run at it, commercially, was something of a disappointment, the Lisa.
But, then came the Mac, given a level of buzz that is difficult to grasp now via the Superbowl ad in 84, and, most of all, PostScript, which is really underappreciated in hindsight. Desktop publishing as we know it wouldn’t have come into being without it, and DTP is what made the Mac a success.
Apple floundered around for the best part of a decade after their initial wild success, and MS caught up in several respects, by hook or by crook (mostly crook). Corporate IT departments didn’t like the comparative stability of the platform, considered it something of a threat to their goldplated priesthood, and already had considerable investment in DOS, so continued with MS platforms and disparaged Apple at every turn ... FUD, fear, uncertainty and doubt. This allowed Windows PCs to predominate.
Now, the shoe’s on the other foot. MS is floundering. Apple is ascendant. As a longtime Mac user, I can’t say I’m not enjoying it, lol.