That's getting at my point. The parent seems to be implying that copyright is forced on creators at the expense of other means of protection that would be more

That's getting at my point. The parent seems to be implying that copyright is forced on creators at the expense of other means of protection that would be more beneficial to them. I just don't think that's the case - there's not actually anything forcing creators to copyright their work, but they do so anyways because it actually is the most appealing of the available options.