Yeah, I’m not taking about competing for a patent; I’m saying you can’t patent something for which there is prior art. Prior art isn’t a patent:

Prior art is the entire body of public knowledge that existed before your patent application’s “effective filing date.”

https://govfacts.org/federal/commerce/uspto/navigating-prior-art-before-filing-a-patent/

The fact that software which does this already existed places a barrier in front of a patent filing. A not insurmountable one, but if they pursue a patent violation against some company in the future using the patent they’re awarded, said company could (possibly) use the prior art existence of the software, in the public domain, as defense.