Fair, but the fate of most innovators throughout history is to be killed by vested interests in areas of high population density, or to be unable to scale up in areas of low population density.
Bickering, greedy, paranoid European governments were too frightened of each other to truly commit to intolerance and monopoly.
FOMO plus balance-of-power supported good institutions.
Rare, historically, and may not happen again for centuries...
