It's what the Be leadership were betting on. They lost that bet and the company folded. Whether they were ever in the running or just deluding themselves I have no special insight into.
BeOS was less production ready but a better multitasking media OS than NeXT. NeXT had a longer history but did take a long time (years!) to get ready for consumer use. Which was a better call is hard to say, even in hindsight.
What took a long time was not getting it ready for consumer use. It's also worth remembering Apple had no shortage of half-finished OS's sitting about. It's trivial to say which was a better call. BeOS was an interesting prototype for its time but to treat it as somehow equivalent or comparable to what Apple got with Nextstep doesn't reflect the reality at all.
No, no, that's exactly the point. Not equivalent and not comparable. If I want to fly a bunch of people from LA to NYC and am picking out a Boeing or Airbus passenger airliner, there's a different set of trade offs. There is no 'different set of trade offs' between an airliner and a crop duster (or a super-advanced ultralight designed and hand-assembled by Burt Rutan). Because one of those things is not a passenger airliner. It can't fly bunches of people from LA to NYC.
Many, many years passed between the beginning of this sentence and the end. Remember BeIA? Internet appliances were the final bet that actually killed Be.
BeOS was less production ready but a better multitasking media OS than NeXT. NeXT had a longer history but did take a long time (years!) to get ready for consumer use. Which was a better call is hard to say, even in hindsight.