Not necessarily, but innovation for the sake of change isn't very appealing if it doesn't bring something to the table. Ok, a guitar that can tune itself, woot, how have I managed for all those years ?
See the almost overwhelming positive response to the evertune bridge, which brings a solution to an existing problem.
Well, a traditional-looking guitar where you can change tunings on the fly without modelling is not that silly of an idea to me - not something I'd need, but I don't see it as a gimmick for gimmick's sake.
Point taken that innovation has to be meaningful, but trying and failing is very much a part of it, so at the very least I would give Gibson the credit for that. Besides, we will all have different conception of what is innovative - SS.org may be about new materials, designs, and ERG solutions, while there are other parts of the guitar playing community still complaining about the fact that no company fully embraced the various polyphonic synth possibilities etc.