The core count(number of cores) in a processor does count only if it is to be used with multi-threaded applications, this has been the point of discussion for the last couple of years in the Android world too, where there aren't enough applications that truly need multiple cores. And 64-bit architecture in the not so matured 64-bit platform does more bad than good because, for a 32-bit app or a driver, both 64-bit & 32-bit libraries will have to be loaded on to the main memory. More usage of ram for the same app than a normal 32-bit platform(if you remember this was the problem that desktop users faced when the 64-bit architecture was first introduced in operating systems like XP & Vista, no true 64-bit drivers & apps so more laggy performance).
But Apple somehow managed to produce a SoC that delivers performance more than its counterparts in the mobile world just at the base clocks(A7 SoC max clock speed 1.3Ghz whereas Snapdragon 800 SoC clocks at a staggering 2.3Ghz). It has come very close to the performance of Intel's Bay Trail(which considered to be the beast to beat in the coming months). This is due to two reasons, one is the 64-bit processor, which means more wider general registers & float-point registers along with the increase in the number of registers and two is the amount of optimization that Apple has made to take full advantage of the SoC. If you read reviews of Moto X(Motorola's latest flagship), it trounces(in many benchmarks) every other Android flagship of this year(from the first of the year) which features Snapdragon 600 SoC even though it(Moto X) has the last year's processor, Snapdragon S4 Pro. It is just because of Moto X fully & better optimized for the Snapdragon s4 Pro than any other smartphone was done.
M7 co-processor doesn't help in the performance of Iphone 5s, it is just there to do works that don't need the muscle of main processor. Instead of wasting more power in waking up the main processor, Apple implemented M7 co-processor for all the works that need very low power so that the main processor can be put in deep sleep state(which saves or improves battery life). Again, I'll compare with what Motorola did with Moto X, one of the most talked about feature in Moto X is always on screen, screen always doesn't shut off completely when it's locked, instead it shows the notifications on the lock screen at minimum brightness when the display is infomred by the host of sensors that the phone is out of pocket or bag or the phone is put face(screen) up on the table. If you put phone face down on the table, the display shuts off completely, same is done when the phone goes into pocket or bag. So all these features are implemented by Contextual Awareness processor(TI MSP430). All the sensors, that feed the information & help the display to decide when to light up to provide notifications, use Contextual Awareness processor but not the main Snapdragon S4 pro processor because they don't need the muscle of S4 Pro. Same goes with the always on voice feature(say 'Ok Google Now' to unlock the device or do other things without touching it), which is implemented by another co-processor called 'Natural Language Core'(TI C55x).