I do this with software related things, but what I noticed is that I implement just enough of my own tweaks until I’m comfortable enough taking the credit for the whole idea. My defense when people call me out is to highlight my differences and understate the similarities, even going as far as to say without my features the idea was half baked from the start.

Why do I do it? I don’t know, a lot of developers do it. Just how we are I guess. Not Invented Here syndrome.