Ok, I'm not gonna bother to discuss wherever Helvetica was a rip-off of Akzidenz the same way Arial is to Helvetica. It's really not even the point, if someone wanted a cool font that was almost the same as helvetica but didn't bother paying the loyalties, then go right ahead. The problem is that it's a poor rip-off, instead of stealing and adding, they just stole and forgot some details.
Also, the "earlies grotesques", and that all design steals is pretty far off the point. Take Univers. Most people, by a glance probably wouldn't spot the difference between Univers and Helvetica. Still there is enough a difference that you can spot the difference in appearance. Univers is more diverse, with more varied stroke-sizes etc. Typography is all in the details, and that's also the clue to good typography. Not saying "they look more or less the same, so who cares".
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