I'm so sick of hearing about how great the LeFever ball joint is.

Why didn't all the other makers copy it? Maybe it was pride in their own design, which worked perfectly well. Maybe it was because they respected one another and didn't endeavor to rip each other off. Maybe it was patent rights. Maybe they didn';t have the benefit of 100 years of 20/20 hindsight.

Why didn't LeFever settle on one design and stop reinventing the wheel every 5 years? Why didn't he focus a bit more on aesthetics?