I think it is very difficult to judge how much of an advantage your competitive advantage actually is. It’s very easy to look at the things which directly cost you sales and conclude that those are the things you need to fix rather than doubling down on your strengths. The most common way to avoid that is to go too far in the other direction and become convinced that your niche technology is vastly superior to the mainstream choice and anyone who rejects you for your shortcomings is just shortsighted and wrong.

From the outside it’s always seemed that kdb fans tend to land in the second camp, and I think it would be understandable for Kx to have overcorrected into undervaluing their work instead.