Marketing and all the COOL glass products that are a MUST have item.
I have found after using them, lily pipes are beautiful, but too much work to maintain. I have enough to do maintaining tanks, I don't want to have to maintain extra stuff.
Not that I don't clean my filter lines and intakes, but I don't have to make them SPOTLESS.
Same with the trimless tanks. I think they are nice looking, but too much work to keep clean and filled to the top all the time. And I don't find anything wrong with a nice matching tank and stand.
But it is also what people see. Newbies that first log onto the sites, looking for idea's and what they see are what it popular, so it is logical that they will try to re-create the tanks that are their favorite, maybe with different plants or a mirror image or switch it up somehow so they put their signature on the tank, but what else do they have to go by.
As far as styles, I agree with Roy, a healthy mix keeps it exciting.
I have never really done a dutch scape, I don't know that I have ever really followed guidelines other then what I am trying to accomplish and as and as Trenac says, "What I feel at the time".
I also think that many people may do that same thing, go by feel and try just to do something different, and it happens to look like they are doing a copy because it is VERY hard to actually be original all the time unless your last name is Deki
NO, kidding, not trying to take from the MANY others that have that sense of originality in every tank they create
But I may just try to do a DUTCH scape in a future tank and follow all the DUTCH guidelines just to get a taste of something new (or old, depends on how you look at it).
I am sure it will help me, and I will have another weapon in my arsenal and help me to develop a more rich style of my own.