Almost certainly couldn't have happened differently, since we also have counterexamples of similar competing projects that called out privacy as a differentiato

Almost certainly couldn't have happened differently, since we also have counterexamples of similar competing projects that called out privacy as a differentiator which all crashed and burned. If you want a privacy-focused product to win, you either need to find an audience who wants it and focus there, or, you need to do great on all the other fronts that lead to acquisition and keep the privacy stuff an internal priority, not a banner feature.