And how much value would this have to you if there were 40 separate forks? 400 forks?
It's not about value, but about disruption and loss of credibility. A common, non-technical user wanting to sign up would have to choose between 400 different FB pages to register, and he would then be able to login only to the one single version he registered, whereas his friends who were long-time FB users would have access to all of them! They would post messages that can potentially be seen by the new user, but his replies won't reach them...
It's just an ugly mess for the newbie and the interested but non-technical investor, who will be scared away. The name "Bitcoin" should map to one codebase, one blockchain, one coin. I believe that all those forks are not intended to help Bitcoin, but to cause havoc and disruption for motives characterized by ego and greed. It's a cancer and it's unfortunate that it exists.
It is also a natural effect of bitcoin being Open Source software which is huge part of the reason it is so trusted in the first place. But I agree it can be used as a way to spread FUD and attack the limited coins ideal.
This is correct. That's why I said it's unfortunate that it exists, but it does, by design. Open Source is a good thing, probably the only method for achieving something as grand and revolutionary as Bitcoin, but it has its side-effects, which, combined with ego and greed, create this cancer. It remains to be seen how malignant it will be.