I think the article gets this upside down. When 100 companies have an identical problem, and it's not a problem that's in the domain of what they're competing

I think the article gets this upside down. When 100 companies have an identical problem, and it's not a problem that's in the domain of what they're competing over, then it's a tremendous waste of labor for them to come up with 100 separate solutions. It's just cheaper for them to allow enough wiggle room that the problem gets solved in the open so they can all get on to focusing on whatever it is that makes them different from their competitors.