I don't think NIH counts as NIH when you have a very clear and justifiable rationale. The best projects document their rationale and provide a direct, unbiased

I don't think NIH counts as NIH when you have a very clear and justifiable rationale. The best projects document their rationale and provide a direct, unbiased comparison to allow developers to make a better decision on which to use, as you have. The worst (and true NIH) projects pretend that the original project does not exist or document a biased comparison without acknowledging the points that are subjective. There is one improvement I'd make. Your story here (spent hours debugging and filing bugs; spending the same amount of time rewriting got you further) is the most convincing reason to me. I'd document this in your comparison!