Even if Monero is, as you say, supposed to 'take on' Bytecoin, who's to say that there can't be a coin made to overtake both of them, theoretically speaking? Cryptonote's genius is as an enabler - to introduce an environment where users are in no doubt that any innovation is possible, if they have the skill to implement it.
What do you even mean here? These are open-source projects. Apart from that .. what are they enabling? Innovation? I'll take two examples: merge mining, and i2p integration.
The environment for merge mining is highly clamored; however, the mention of i2p was in fact bashed. Cryptonote has nothing to do with enabling innovation, you don't need their permission or support for it. How do you think their presence in any way spurs innovation? People could simply fork this without them, due to being open source .. so where are you going with this?
I would say that this is the essence of CryptoNote's philosophy: to create a level playing field where any coin is given the potential to become a leader - an environment where anyone will be able to compete for the lead position.
I would point out that the CN philosophy is simply that of a cheerleader, not the creator of this playing field. They cheer for the currencies that would have been on the field regardless of their presence at all. This is more in line with their vision -- they're not a government and they don't make laws.
CryptoNote's genius, is coming up with a concept and contributing some code according to them. Apart from that, it was the Bytecoin/Cybernote/Betanote website that provided the bulk of the source code. It is their genius that is as an enabler -- not CryptoNote in the sense that you put forth. CN hasn't maintained a repo until this thread.