The clones are an evolution of the custom guns.
In the 70’s there were mostly Colts. Then came modified Colts. Then some others like Springfield came to fill that gap, but the custom 1911 market blew up. In the late 80’s and 90’s there were 1000’s of custom 1911 builders. Then they came to realize they needed to machine parts from stock to get what customers wanted. That birthed Caspian, which birthed about 20 bar stock frame and slide makers. This was actually the downfalls of full house customs.
I blame Lane Simpson and his book! Obviously I’m joking, but it showed you what was happening with custom 1911’s and who was doing it.
After this, some companies sought out a nitch market of full house custom quality, but since so many people were ordering the same gun, they made like 1-5 models each. These were names like Ed Brown, Wilson, Les Baer, etc. the added benefit is that pretty much all of the big names like these plus Richard Heinie, George at EGW, and a few others were looking to retire or at least get off the bench.
As the $2500+ guns were becoming standardized and easier to produce, the production market started making good looking mim filled guns under $1000 to beat Colt and fill that need for a sub$1000 custom looking gun that may or may not run. Heck today Kimber makes 50 upc’s of a handful of parts in a dizzying array of colors and meaningless tactical cuts all from a small number of mim molds and some minor machining. RIA does nearly the same, but in way fewer colors and less finish work.
As you can see a gap formed between $1000 and $4000(where the $2500 guns went). Dan Wesson, Colt and Springfield have jumped into that gap and filled it pretty well. Dan Wesson makes a great high quality gun with a great finish for under $2000 by precision machining.
Somewhere after this, the $10000+ production custom gap was identified and Cabot is filling that!
This is why so many clones were made.