[nolongerthere]

Likely sunk cost fallacy. Space flight is still new enough that starting from scratch lets you use all the lessons that were learned from your predecessors while not getting stuck in the muck of institutional inertia. And you still aren't that far behind the more experienced competition. Unlike say, a commodity like candles that doesn't have anything new to discover, and the existing manufactures cannot be out innovated.

[necheffa]

Not to mention the bureaucracy tax; Boeing has had far more time to let the bureaucracy metastasize.