Don't forget that Monero was launched with the sole purpose of being a scam. Original devs only did it for the money. If the community didn't take it over and find a whale to back it, the coin would be dead right now.
You are absolutely right. The difference between this coin and that coin is that here,
no one took over.
I'm still trying to figure out the relevance of Monero at all other than the "attack the attacker" strategy.