If so it'd be different in that regard. I was thinking of it more as the better-engineered underdog that lost out to the more corporate-friendly option.

IIRC it had full duplex unlike USB 1/2, it launched well before USB with a fast 400Mbps transfer speed and its hardware controller was sophisticated enough that it could work without much intervention from the OS.

But looking into the history, the patent situation was indeed grim. Likely that's what kept it in an Apple and DV niche until USB caught up.

Jobs wanted too much money for firewire and Intel wanted to get PC dominance by having USB everywhere. The lack of firewire adoption is mostly afaik on Jobs.