That's kind of at the core of my point. If you "embrace/extend" the Twitter API, you have this entire ecosystem of developers that only have to switch an API k

That's kind of at the core of my point. If you "embrace/extend" the Twitter API, you have this entire ecosystem of developers that only have to switch an API key/URL and their tools can work with your system, utilizing whatever new features you provide on top of the "vanilla" Twitter API. The larger the developer ecosystem gets, the more appealing it is to make the switch as easy as possible for them.