Agree with the rest of your post, but I’m not to sure abbot this. I think this is a short term good thing for Starling - and may even end up being a good long term thing - but I think it fundamentally changes the Monzo vs Starling question. We know that they come from the same starting point, but I think the points of deviation are beginning to show.
I think that while this might be a success for Starling, their focus and proposition might become confused. I also thing (strangely enough) it makes them more of an acquisition target - maybe for someone like MasterCard themselves.
For what it’s worth, I think that platforms are the thing that could become the holy grail (I witter about it here).