I was a big fan of ethereum and invested the first time at $17 and I made a lot of money, bought even a piano because of ethereum. Thanks to that.
You have written a pretty good report here. In the last year I came upon your concerns too and then added another one, when the cryptokitties boomed. The blockchain wasnt able to process transactions. Everything was so slow. And this was for me the point, when I thought my beloved ethereum will not get to massadoption whit a technology that can not handle a bigger amount of traffic. I think we all are aware of that after CK.
Whit the uncertainty of the other things mentioned in your article I came to conclusion to not being invested heavily in ethereum, like I was last year. :)
Competitors? NEM, Neo, Waves, maybe EOS. Excited times ahead anyway ^^