The ultimate judgement, apple stock fell after the announcement.
Innovation has slowed? By whose metric? Bringing a usable biometric sensor system that integrates with the API and seamlessly in the form factor is pretty innovative, considering we're talking about a new model of an existing product. They're also making the jump to 64-bit CPUs before anyone else - maybe that isn't "sexy", but it will likely keep them in the lead over their competitors for some time.
With so many people involved in the supply chain, it's practically impossible to keep hardware secrets.
The ultimate judgement, apple stock fell after the announcement.
Apple stock falls after every announcement. It has no bearing on what future sales or success will be. (Classic case of "buy the rumor, sell the news, IMO.)