As long as Rice, Gonetz, and Orkin share information with each other (especially by releasing the source code), it is a good thing they don't merge. I'm sure the diversity in their approaches helps progress quite a bit.
@Orkin: Have been able to get the end-of-level effects in Super Smash Brothers to work? It looks like copy-to-texture. You can see the polygons used in the transition effects, but they are black with no texture.