That's rubbish. Reinventing existing software as a learning exercise has plenty of merit.

How are you supposed to learn to invent new things if you don't know how existing things work?

I guess you think you're the first person to express that sentiment?

That philosophy has some lingering halitosis of truth to it.

Any inspection of any economy suggests otherwise. How many tire manufacturers are out there? How many different brands, styles, and types of tire? How many total US Dollars per year are those companies sharing?

How about oil changes? Car washes? How about car wax?

New doesn't equal profitable. Making a different product, or service, is where most of the profits on earth sit.

Wanna be a rebel and broke? Then by all means follow the new-new and barely break-break even.