Of course there are. Like I said, Stripe was competition. It wasn't a side-show because it didn't try to change the game without solid analytical data; instead it just played the same game and tried different methods of achieving the same goals. That's competition: We're both trying to get to the same place, and we're doing it differently.
But, again, I don't see the linked site as doing that. Instead, it's trying to say that it can achieve the same goals by playing an entirely different game. And that's fine, if they can back it up. But everything that does that is a side-show until they do.
A grocery store isn't competition to Wal-Mart or Amazon. If they want to be, they have to tackle the scale of supply and demand that those monopolists do. If they say "we're doing exactly what they did, just cheaper", that's competition. If they say "we're doing exactly what they did, but we have this localized scheme for deliveries that will save us a ton of money", THAT'S competition (assuming some evidence it's true).
If they say "we're going to do something entirely different, and here's a bunch of convincing data to say why that would work, or work better", that is, once again, competition.
But if your grocery store says "we're going to do it completely differently, because we are aggrieved!", that is a side-show. There's nothing there to engender confidence. If the store says "we're going to do it completely differently, by doing it backwards because that SHOULD work out better", that is another example of a side-show.
The salient bit being that it MIGHT work. That's what's great about capitalism. But you'll forgive me if I don't get too particularly enthused about yet another right-wing think-tank pivoting into new ways for people to invest a ton of money before they agonizingly drag out their corporate demise, insisting that they are doing "fine", the whole time. It's not myopic or short-sighted to contextualize real patterns that you've observed into actionable investment or divestment of interest.