If Ethereum didn't have these things on top it wouldn't be where it is now. Ethereum can do many things Bitcoin can do but it's a completely different beast than Bitcoin.
Ethereum is a platform that is intended to allow people to easily write decentralized applications using blockchain technology. It was never meant to be 'just another' altcoin. Developers took notice of this, and projects built on top of it started sprouting up. Some have raised millions of dollars through ICOs, and the trend is still strong. But despite Ethereum's ambitious long-term goals, it's not entirely clear whether the network can scale well enough to allow for complex applications with a lot of users. Besides, Ethereum's currency ether is not widely used as a means of payment and does not even strive to replace Bitcoin in that sense, so it's unclear what you get, long-term, by owning ETH.