>once you demonstrate that something is doable (as SpaceX has) It opens the way for other capital to create competitive systems.

In the abstract I agree, but there's zero chance Honda is getting into the orbital launch business. This is a recruiting stunt (and probably to help push for a bailout from Japan), not a real product.

  >buy launch services from another vendor... without the baggage of the damage Elon has done

This misjudges what their customers care about.

Can anyone point to a single launch contract cancelled because of "baggage?" Big media would no doubt gleefully shout that story from the hilltops, but I haven't seen it.

  >it feels almost prophetic to watch SpaceX's competitors emerge.

Prophesy, but also a healthy dose of wish fulfillment.

All Goliaths eventually fall, but they have an annoying tendency of not doing so on the timelines we might hope for. Just look at Microsoft in the 90s.