Great job on this. I have followed it a while but didn’t know all this. I think it’s also significant it shares a founder with ethereum, it is a Japanese coin in the ways it’s marketed. This might be considered Japanese ethereum like neo icon and waves claim China Korea and Russia.
Nope. Cardano, the same as EOS and somehow Aeternity, are all Third Generation Blockchains. Saying that Cardano is the Japanese version of Ethereum is not fair.
Both NEO, ICON and Waves are Second Generation Blockchains. They try to do the same but in different ways. Third Generation Blockchains will solve many problems that Second Generation ones will not.
I also disagree on the link between Waves and Russia. Waves creators are from that country, but the blockchain itself is not oriented to be the "Ethereum of Russia". I don't know about ICON, but yes, NEO is truly the Ethereum of China.