While trying to clone a game, I've noticed several things:
>1)
Copying a game is immensely unsatisfying since all your victories aren't real victories for gaming in general, but just a way of catching up to another developer in the hopes of one day implementing something original.
>2)
If you copy 1 aspect, it will lead to a cascade where you copy several more aspects, since they're usually all interconnected.
Copying is somewhat of a vicious cycle that way.