I don’t think innovation is strictly necessary to do well. It’s clear that Afterpay is the most well liked BNPL solution by customers. That’s not a guarantee for success, but it could be enough. BNPL seems like a classic oligopoly industry (like credit cards), so if Afterpay ends up the leader in more global geographies, i think they will start looking pretty good.
There are other examples of companies and stocks that do well through execution and customer loyalty instead of innovation (Peloton, Chewy)