Well you said: "Buying Next brought Steve back, and that's the only thing that kept Apple alive." earlier and the on-going lawsuits were critical for Apple's survival with them having to compromise a deal with Microsoft in order for Bill Gates to save them.
The acquisition choice alone was half of the story even if NeXT or Be were bought and Apple still wouldn't be here without compromising a deal with Microsoft to invest in them since the lawsuits were in Microsoft's favour.
It would be safer to say that history would certainly be different if that outcome happened. But you’re almost there on completing the actual story.
You do realise that to turn the company around in the first place you still need cash / stock in the company? The time that Jobs joined, Apple was close to bankruptcy and couldn’t afford to lose anymore lawsuits. He had to compromise with Gates with a lawsuit settlement to invest $100M+ shares in the Apple and offer Office on the Mac which essentially saved them from bankruptcy. There’s plenty of evidence to explain this outcome.
My point to this argument is regardless of Jobs returning from NeXT or not, he couldn’t have even performed the turn around without the investment from Gates and the company would be bankrupt anyway. The Microsoft settlement and the investment is the reason why Apple still exists today or else Apple would have no doubt be certainly bankrupt and finished. Period.
The acquisition choice alone was half of the story even if NeXT or Be were bought and Apple still wouldn't be here without compromising a deal with Microsoft to invest in them since the lawsuits were in Microsoft's favour.