[borplk]

Yep. True MVPs only work if you are solving a problem with no other effective competitor.

So it's either your MVP (to solve their problem) or nothing.

That's extremely rare.

If you are making "a better ___". Some basic ugly MVP is not going to get you far.

People will just be like "Ok we'll use one of these 10 other competitors until your product catches up to them".

And yes, I know you will differentiate in some aspects, but a lot of solutions are nearly useless until they cover a large critical set of features. If you implement 5 differentiating features but you lack a polished UI/UX and 100 other "basic" features that other established competitors have, you can't win anyone over because of the differentiation alone.