Nope, you're perfectly right.
It's never about the camera. A great picture always comes from a great photographer, no matter what camera you're shooting with.
I think that the added value that the iPhone brought was just the interface and the fact that by being basically a simple and neat screen you hold in your hands, the iPhone emphasizes the image itself and reduces the process of creating a picture to just you and the picture. (and the iPhone 1 did this particularly well because the whole process consisted in tapping a button, no focusing, no settings, no interface distractions) it's just you and the picture you want to take. you compose and shoot. I think this is the reason why the iPhone better suited than any other cellphone with a camera in a photographic and artistic point of view.
And this is also why it matters so much in a iconic way. It's just like the polaroid... sure there where other cameras, sure every camera can take a great picture, but it's just about the feel it has.
that's why there's so much into the iPhoneography trend and why we enjoy looking at pictures taken with an old iPhone. it's all about the feel they have. and I think that SPNarwhal, who started this thread, well described this feel in his previous comment.