No way, the Boxster DEFINITELY turned the corner for Porsche.
Agreed that the Cayenne is a much bigger success story for Porsche. But had it not been for the Boxster Porsche wouldn't have had the luxury of dragging their feet to unveil the top notch rebranded Touraeg. Those Boxster dollars brought in allot more money for R&D across all their models. Who knows maybe it was Porsche's know how that made the VW SUV as good as it is. I highly doubt VW would have been able to produce an SUV on their own that lapped the N-Ring in the same time as the BoxsterS. A collaboration that was as lucrative as it was successful on track. Who knows if Porsche would have even been in a position to get a good deal out of that colloboration if they were still only selling minimal numbers of 911 and 968's.
Look up the Porsche sales in North America in the early 90's.
I recall an interview with the CEO of PNA stating that they sold less
than 1,000 911's in one particular year.
They sold that many Caymans in January alone.
The Boxster is no Miata in terms of sales but it was certainly a make or break momment for a company that would probably have been taken over instead of
buying a piece of VW.