Is all really great software born in an environment where it was protected from competition? Caveat , I am not drawing a causal relation, nor am I claiming that

Is all really great software born in an environment where it was protected from competition? Caveat , I am not drawing a causal relation, nor am I claiming that competition doesn't produce merely good software. But a sort of 'happy childhood' may be necessary (although not sufficient) for great software. Just look at the examples... Google, three years in academia when business considered search a cost rather than an asset. Gmail, again a long incubation. All the great open source projects are like this too. This seems to work best when the authors have little competitive pressure, but somehow are able and willing to use that idyll to learn a lot about the problem and the users.