Well the thing is, at first almost all projects look the same to the outside observer. This is precisely why Nxt was almost indistinguishable from its rather unfit competitors at the beginning. Indeed, Nxt turned out to be a black swan of sorts for most people observing it, thought I'm not entirely sure it was the same black swan for the people working on it.

Anyway, what actually happens is that after some time, things which were mostly invisible to the outsider are gradually revealed. That's when it becomes suddenly obvious that projects are qualitatively different. I guess it will be the same with NEM, things should speak for themselves at some point.