It's like saying it would be good if there were two competing projects writing something akin to the Linux kernel. It's just not true.
No, I think it actually can be true. For example, since you point out Linux, the world is better for having FreeBSD, because FreeBSD does things that Linux can't (ZFS in-tree) or won't (combined base OS, not just a kernel).
Note that this works when there's a significant difference; if we start with a fork of the exact same code, it'll need a real driver to matter (example: any project acquired by Oracle and immediately forked by the community).
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No, I think it actually can be true. For example, since you point out Linux, the world is better for having FreeBSD, because FreeBSD does things that Linux can't (ZFS in-tree) or won't (combined base OS, not just a kernel).
Note that this works when there's a significant difference; if we start with a fork of the exact same code, it'll need a real driver to matter (example: any project acquired by Oracle and immediately forked by the community).