An an original iPhone user (before the App Store launched), I strongly disagree. The original iPhone was awesome on its own and changed my life more than having additional apps have. Having a large high quality responsive touch screen interface with excellent UI/UX of a real web browser, email, calendar, maps, etc. was a huge thing.
I also strongly suspect that many app store apps could be replicated as web apps given no alternative, and that mobile web progress (both browsers and frameworks) would have also moved much faster and be in a significantly more mature state had not most of the focus shifted toward native apps.
If Apple hadn't launched the app store, it's quite possible we'd not even miss it and happily discuss whether apple's iPhone (sans app store) is better or worse than the other now touch-based phones (also without an app store).
I also strongly suspect that many app store apps could be replicated as web apps given no alternative, and that mobile web progress (both browsers and frameworks) would have also moved much faster and be in a significantly more mature state had not most of the focus shifted toward native apps.