alt Hacker News> The duplication is the same
It is not. Seven teams all working under one leadership is quite different to seven leaderships each working with one team.
When different governments (e.g. USA and USSR), and thus different leaderships, are both trying to solve the same problem (e.g. travel to the moon), that too is considered efficient competition.
Oh, so seven /leaderships/ is what's made the difference?
If a government did this (e.g., seven independent agencies competing for a moon landing), people would call it "fragmented," "uncoordinated," and "bureaucratic infighting."