It all comes down to subconscious branding. People would know that a 12S was just a rehash of the 12 so they called it the 13 and people upgraded.

This is also why, after the Galaxy S10, Samsung started putting years in there. Immediately the Galaxy S20 sounds better to an unknowledgeable customer than an iPhone 11 because the number is higher.

It’s also why, when faced with their potential ‘Xbox 2’ going up against Sony’s PlayStation 3, Microsoft named their successor console the Xbox 360. It didn’t sound a generation behind and rolled off the tongue better.

In all these cases the number rebranding worked. The Xbox 360 outside the PS3 and the iPhone 12SS aka the 14 did gangbusters.