I don't think of other projects as copycats, e.g. development of Yours has likely started long before Steem has been announced. Competition is a good thing indeed so we can pick ideas from different projects that has worked best. The ultimate winner in this crypto-social-network space might not have been born yet, this whole universe is in its early hot and expanding stages. It's like Web search of the 1990s, at first there were Altavista and Lycos (remember those?), then Google emerged and transformed the whole thing.
BTW what competing projects are there? Yours, Akasha, anything else? Let's make a list
I really like your analogy of Altavista and Lycos especially since I was around when all that was happening lol...lets not forget good old yahoo - yours and akasha are the only two I am certain of at this stage I did hear of one coming using #etherium as their currency but I do not know the exact name - a list is a good idea :)