I don't know if this is the destruction or the fulfillment of music -- after all, what was giant steps but the next step in jazz harmony to take after the ii-V-I pattern; both Giant Steps and the ii-V-I are based on traversal through the circle of fifths, after all, with the descent by fifths being something of a cliche in baroque music itself, the most basic building block of Western functional harmony taken to its logical conclusion. Despite its unusual form, Giant Steps itself is
still based on relationships between values in the circle of fifths, instead structured in a way that creates an ambiguous rather than clear tonic.
Then again I'm sure even today that Schoenberg has his detractors as well.