Bitcoin originated smart contracts, but they were severely limited due to a filter that was imposed. Arbitrary scrypt execution was seen as a security risk (despite not being Turing-complete), so a set of scrypt templates were whitelisted. I think all clients would accept blocks with any scrypt in them, but most pools would only accept transactions with the fixed templates.

Bitcoin does have enough flexibility to do trustless cross-chain trading though, so it's possible to do dapp logic in Eth and manipulate BTC funds indirectly. (IIRC)

And MySpace was better all around in objective terms, but facebook was dumbed down for mass appeal so it won out?

This is a false narrative.

Facebook better optimized for the fact that most people are too stupid to avoid using full-page background images and auto-playing music.

I thought it was a lot cooler back then. People got their own customized little places about themselves, maybe with some fun media playing. Now it's all boring and sterilized.

It was a blessing and a curse.

The internet in general is probably "better designed" now, but also way more homogenized and boring.

>was dumbed down for mass appeal so it won out?

thats usually how it works

Yes, I just don't think the analogy worked very well.