Refresh internals as in using the next-gen chips, not refresh as reusing the same chips with a bit more speed added. They've upgraded single-core to a newer dual-core A5 chip, a newer generation of GPU chips, a faster Wi-Fi chipset and so on in iPhone 4S.
We don't know anything about iPhone 5S right now. I believe Apple will go quad-core GPU, higher-clocked dual-core CPU A7, 2GB of RAM, improved radio with 802.11ac support, and a slightly improved battery.
Apple doesn't care about NFC, I still haven't seen any useful purposes for it and from what I've seen of my Android folks, they don't either. I rather they not bloat it up with useless features and focused on better features that people will use, like improved cameras and more RAM for the new expanded multi-tasking feature in iOS 7.
Widgets/Homescreen is more of an iOS thing and so far, iOS 7 doesn't have them, so don't expect anything of that sort.
is a quad-core GPU really a good idea in the time of 72 core GPU (tegra 4), the RAM, CPU, WiFi, battery power these things havent leaked yet so we cant really talk about these, i agree with you that NFC is still not widely used but it is replacing the QR codes so why not adopt a good thing early, widgets/ homescreens are really useful (i had an android phone before joining the iphone club) and i really miss those widgets and homescreens, believe me, they're really useful.