so the bit about them cribbing off of people hasn’t really been a variable in their equations for at least a couple decades

That’s meant to say they can’t do that from the front of the pack. There’s not much to crib from that they don’t invent.

That’s a burden on TMSC that guys like Samsung and SMIC don’t suffer from, at least until they can match pace. For the time being, other firms can close in on TMSC by following in their footsteps (or, at least, avoiding their errors).