I think that if Ethereum had appeared before bitcoin, then it would have been the father of cryptocurrency, and bitcoin would have become the second, so for me they are equal, although it seems that there is a gap between them
That is true about the first to launched ,if ethereum was the first to be introduced in the digital world , then it would be the one to first to popular, this what happen to bitcoin ,it was first introduced and launched so the popularity of it is so high to surpass, so bitcoin is still the first coin in the market today.