Looks like Monero was created to solve tangible problems in the Bitcoin experiment.
Remember the phrase "Bitcoin experiment." The initial Bitcoin proposal claimed that it's an experiment, and implied that it wasn't designed to scale to general-purpose commerce.
It implied that it was an experiment, but it never implied that it wasn't suitable for general purpose commercial usage. By all reasonable metrics, the experiment was and continues to be successful.
Remember the phrase "Bitcoin experiment." The initial Bitcoin proposal claimed that it's an experiment, and implied that it wasn't designed to scale to general-purpose commerce.