> will certainly wind up pissing people off/alienating people entirely
If someone else implementing a vaguely similar idea makes those people pissed off, well, it's certainly not the implementors fault.
I've had a zillion ideas only to find out that someone has already executed them. At first it somewhat pissed me off, like isn't there anything that hasn't been already done? Then I got over it and realized that you need a crapload of hard work, persuasion and elbow grease to make the ideas a product that people want to use badly enough that they pay you for it.
If someone else implementing a vaguely similar idea makes those people pissed off, well, it's certainly not the implementors fault.
I've had a zillion ideas only to find out that someone has already executed them. At first it somewhat pissed me off, like isn't there anything that hasn't been already done? Then I got over it and realized that you need a crapload of hard work, persuasion and elbow grease to make the ideas a product that people want to use badly enough that they pay you for it.