VTVL rockets existed before SpaceX. In fact SpaceX started by hiring engineers which had been working on the same thing at Blue Origin. SpaceX also got a bunch of funding from NASA to develop exactly this thing.

I think if it wasn’t for SpaceX this technology would still exist today, just developed by a different company (or even NASA them selfs if they were so inclined). SpaceX just happened to be the right company at the right time with the right engineers onboard to reap the benefits afterwards.