I generally agree with you, but when you're bootstrapping a business or working on a tight deadline, you can save a ton of time by just copying what others have

I generally agree with you, but when you're bootstrapping a business or working on a tight deadline, you can save a ton of time by just copying what others have done. I've been bootstrapping my business, and when it comes to things like designing my homepage I can try to reinvent it from the ground up, or I can follow the cargo cult and copy the Stereotypical Startup Home Page (as patio11 calls it) and move on. Unoriginal, yes. But it frees me from making that decision, and I know there is some sensibility behind it, even if it is a cargo-cultish thing.