Even if in your eyes Monero is seen as the "first", it's just a clone of Bytecoin and offers nothing new to the table...Monero has the same exact features as Quazarcoin, HoneyPenny, and FantomCoin. The only thing that makes them different is the names and logos...I'm sorry but coins like these never make it far, they may be hyped in the short run, but in the long run, having innovation is what carries a coin further, not being copied code for code like Monero was from Bytecoin..
The only way that Darkcoin is able to avoid the same problem is by being closed source and hence entirely unvalidated in its claims. If Darksend goes open source as Evan has claimed, what is going to stop someone from launching a "fair launch" Darkcoin with identical technology but none of the problems involving the "insta-mine" etc.? I'd be really careful relying on this argument as the exact same criticism will apply to DRK three months from now when clones start coming out. The MRO developers are clearly the drivers of CryptoNote innovation right now in terms of volume of improvements to the code base, making CryptoNote technology more accessible, etc. That is how you establish a currency amongst a sea of duplicates.