What MS did with the new Surface desktop is only going to be usable for those working on graphic or possibly engineering programs (if they're designed for touch), given the drafting-table-style interaction
The saddest thing about this is that they aren't saying they are opposed to it out of some design principle or other deep reason. Rather, they just couldn't figure out how to do it well. Which is an engineering and design problem, the sort of thing Jobs excelled at. They're basically admitting that they're no longer smart enough to come up with (admittedly difficult!) design solutions to the sorts of complex computer design problems the future will hold. They aren't even saying no one else will solve these problems, or that they are impossible to solve, or that touch isn't the inevitable future. They're just saying they can't figure it out themselves, and are basically just going to wait for someone else to.
I'm not sure how you're getting that Apple can't engineer a solution out of what was said. The one big issue that can't be engineered to work without further human evolution, is how we interact with a computer, where the screen is in the vertical axis in front of us, which happens to be exactly where our head and eyes are pointed when in the natural sitting or standing positions, and the keyboard / trackpad / mouse is in the horizontal axis, of which our fingers/hands/arms naturally rest, makes it almost impossible to efficiently physically interact with a screen in the vertical axis.
MS tried to address that issue with the Surface Studio, but the tilted [drafting table-style] screen, while easier to interact with your fingers, then becomes more of an issue for your head/neck/back, as you have to hunch over the screen. And as others have noted, if you are doing anything other than drawing on-screen, and you need to go back to the keyboard or trackpad, you have to change positions to work.
So, until we evolve where our necks elongate and our brains get smaller (and lighter), while our arms, hands and fingers get much thinner, longer (and lighter as well), working on touch screen desktop computers, and to a large part even touchscreen laptops is going to be something no computer company can engineer around.
Really, if you want to move from the keyboard / trackpad input, the best way to interact will be a second screen that is reconfigurable to be a keyboard, trackpad, drawing pad, multi-touch device, that allows your eyes to remain focused naturally in front of you, while your arms rest on the desk and hands/fingers interact with the flat screen in the horizontal axis. That way, there are no fingerprints to look through and your fingers / hands will never be in the way of what you're looking at / working on either.