I can't speak for at the time, but in the years since, "More Bounce" is very frequently hailed as The Record That Changed Everything, that sounded nothing like anything anybody had heard before.

Of course, as you noted... apart from the obvious Vaughan Mason influence (even in the title of the song), all of this synth-bass "bounce" stuff started with "Flashlight" and probably culminated with Kashif's most popular productions of the early to mid-80s.