[anjc]

This article seems a little tech-centric. Products don't tend to flourish based purely on technical merit, and there could be many reasons why that product has thrived other than network effects, e.g. aggressive pricing strategies, good sales team, good marketing, brand awareness from customers, switching costs for the restaurant, the health of the food service industry, or perhaps it doesn't bring in enough customers for it to be a priority for restaurateurs, etc etc.

If shitty products tend to thrive it's probably more often due to industry lifecycles, incumbent dominance, solidification of position via acquisitions etc, and the difficulties of innovating in large organisations