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.
It's true - perhaps it's easy to forget that nothing has fallen apart. Innovation is being unveiled and progress from CN coins is happening, with positive consequences.
However if Monero were to fall due to clones that offer very small incremental changes to the code, then I would be a fool to invest my time, money and energy into that competitor because I know the precedent has been set, another coin will be along shortly to ruin that coin, with small incremental changes.
I would just take the perspective that as a concept, CN is working and producing results which are not just admirable but exciting as well, and we should take a level-headed, embracing attitude to developments while there is still no evidence to the contrary.