I would rather have the waste of competition than 20 mediocre scientists coming together and putting out dubious research simply to protect reputations.
I would rather have neither waste nor dubious research. In the case reported in the submitted article, there is (considering the journal that has agreed to publish the research) an important research finding that had not been achieved under the former system of dueling research labs. In this case, it appears that getting the various labs to collaborate both reduced wastage of research resources and improved the quality of the research result. I have no idea how generalizable this happy result might be in other fields of science.
I would rather have neither waste nor dubious research. In the case reported in the submitted article, there is (considering the journal that has agreed to publish the research) an important research finding that had not been achieved under the former system of dueling research labs. In this case, it appears that getting the various labs to collaborate both reduced wastage of research resources and improved the quality of the research result. I have no idea how generalizable this happy result might be in other fields of science.