> Why is this news? Is anyone even remotely surprised by this?

> The rules exist to be skirted by those who have the power to shape them.

I know places I've worked before have seen features in competitor products and scurried to implement new features to reflect them. I work on some open source that takes its lead from closed source alternatives. Is this considered skirting the rules? Genuine question, I don't actually know anything about anything.

Not really. But, to me, it was interesting to learn more about the details and the conversations behind the scenes.