The heliocentric model, as explained by Copernicus, was that the planets, of which the Earth was one, orbited in perfect circles around the Sun, as did the stars.
While recognizing that the Earth was not the center of the universe was an advance, moving that center to the Sun was not really that much of an advance.
Not to mention that planetary orbits are not perfect circles.
If you think that replacing Ptolemaic deferents and epicycles with Kepler's three laws of planetary motion was "not really that much of an advance," you're out of your gourd.
This is one of the four or five greatest scientific discoveries of all time. It is the foundation stone of Newton's law of universal gravitation.
-ccm