ETH is not competing with VNL or BTC.  If anything, it's competing with XCP.

See how long it takes to download the 2-month ETH blockchain and see how long it takes to donwload the 10-month VNL blockchain.  VNL has instant transactions through zerotime, while ETH does not have instant transactions.  VNL has an Android App and an Iphone App, which you can take the wallet.dat from and use on your PC.  I don't belive ETH has any mobile apps yet and I'm not sure if it even has a GUI up and running.  VNL confirms on Poloniex in 1 confirmation, while ETH currently takes 500 confirmations.

There are many other differences, but you should have realized at least a few of those.  I'm guessing you didn't even download and sync either wallet.

VNL Purpose: John is trying to build VNL into a scalable, secure, decentralized currency with instant transactions that won't have to centralize in the future.  Bitcoin will most likely have to centralize (with only large corporations mining it, putting up nodes, and offering instant txs) over the next few decades for a variety of reasons.