Wouldn't Hotelling's law just predict that wannabe-SVs would try to copy every aspect of the original SV? I don't see how that alone explains their failure.
I'd attribute the difficulty of creating the next SV partially to capital/talent concentration being a coordination game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_game) - for any individual small developer, entrepreneur or investor, it makes sense to go where they have the best chances to thrive.
I'd attribute the difficulty of creating the next SV partially to capital/talent concentration being a coordination game (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_game) - for any individual small developer, entrepreneur or investor, it makes sense to go where they have the best chances to thrive.