Actually, the comparison to Edison, at least, is fairly apt. Thomas Edison was a competent and relentless tinkerer, but much of his most enduring work was the result of fiddling with existing devices that others hadn't been able to make into commercial successes. Some 20 different inventors, for example, had made incandescent electric bulbs before Edison -- he just made one that was a LITTLE bit better, and presented it as part of what we now would call an ecosystem of power generation, distribution, delivery, and use. Edison Electric and the Edison light bulb were the iTunes/iPod of their day.

Also, remember that Edison was a tireless self-promoter and that the bulk of "Edison's" patents were the result of the engineers and researchers that he kept at Menlo Park -- he just signed his name to the papers, as the head of the company.

We also, nowadays, forget the times that he was flat-out WRONG -- cast concrete houses and furniture, anyone...? -- and the lengths to which he would go to sabotage his competitors. In order to promote his dream of Edison Electric's direct current power transmission (admittedly safer than high-voltage AC, except for the environmental effects of having power generating stations every couple of square miles due to inefficiencies in transmitting DC) he took every opportunity to try to re-brand in the public mind execution by electric chair as "Westinghousing", after George Westinghouse/Nikola Tesla's competing alternating current power generation and transmission system.

He was also not averse to suing competitors whose products interfered with his profits -- Edison Manufacturing sued competitors of Edison's motion picture production company, claiming that their cameras infringed his patents -- weakening the industry against European imports. (OTOH, this was also one of the reasons for the rise of Hollywood as movie capital of the U.S: besides having more sunny days available for filming than Edison's New Jersey and New York studios -- and at this time, even indoor scenes were shot outdoors, since electric lights weren't yet bright enough to expose the movie film -- but, being so far away from Edison's headquarters, it was more expensive for him to track down and prosecute possible infringers and the circuit court of appeals for California was known for frequently denying patent claims.)

Tirelessly promoting himself and his company, incrementally improving existing technologies to make them public objects of desire, vertically integrating product and delivery service to maximize profits and squeeze out competitors, aggressively defending his company's intellectual property... No -- Love them or hate them, Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs weren't ACTUALLY all that different.