I don't think you could call ethereum a competing product, it works fairly differently in a lot of fundamental ways. UDP vs. TCP is more accurate IMO, and those two don't really compete.
New implementations are generally regarded as good in the space because they help solidify the underlying protocols and add established libraries and routines in a new programming language.
They are basically producing a competing product. Why should they ought to copy the exact formula of their competitors? How can they hope to be better than Bitcoin by doing everything the same way?