I think, it's good that there is an equivalent alternative to bitcoin and I support it with mining. Why there should be only one big crypto currency?
It is better to have many crypto-currencies competing on features (and there are some), but what's the point of an identical copy?
I think there is tons of room for an identical copy, but only if the developers of bitcoin where in on it. The "testnet" is not enough to try out major changes to bitcoin... there needs to be something identical, that is maybe 10% as popular, to test out big protocol changes BEFORE adding it to main bitcoin. The only way to do that is on an identical "coin" , but if the bitcoin dev's aren't going to do this, then yes its a waste of time
Only legit alt currency I have tried is NAMECOIN, it actually adds new ideas and code, was innovative etc. the rest are minor changes by people who don't even understand bitcoin or why it is the way it is