Unfortunately I don’t know if anyone will ever catch up with the massive head start of EA/Maxis. Having an entire studio centered around it definitely helps iterate more quickly as well. It’s going to be very hard for any potential competitors to offer a fraction of the content, at least at first. Even though I may dislike how much content gets locked behind a dlc, it really builds out the game in a way that wouldn’t happen otherwise.

That being said, I think a company that got a solid and fun (and bug free!) foundation out the door could get a toe hold in the market. Especially if they offered easy options for scripting custom content, maps, etc.