Seriously though, if A LOT of new chains were to start with the variables tweaked a bit wouldn't that just make Bitcoin stronger? You would have hundreds of tiny ones but only one big one. It would be hard for any of the small ones to really steal the market as they would be competing with so many others. Bitcoin has the advantage of being way ahead of the rest.
The problem is building an economy with lots of different chains. It is hard enough for general adoption and agreement on the value of a coin with just one chain and kind of coin. If there are a hundred chains and different people all have a hundred different kinds of virtual coins, how do you know what your coins are worth? It makes the world of exchanges very complicated.