Hive didn't start from scratch, it originated from the need of a part of Steem community that believed more strongly than the rest in the ethos of decentralization.

For your information Steem stayed for weeks under the full control of one entity (Justin Sun) who controlled all 20 witnesses spots with newly created sock puppets voted in by exchanges users funds and supposedly non-voting Steemit's pre-mine.

Whatever else you claim it started from was opensouce code in the public domain.