‘Better’ and ‘ahead’ are subjective...personal value judgements. For example, I believe facts and data comprise the best support for a claim. Your statements suggest you think that name calling and vulgarity are ‘better’ (whereas I think they merely make you appear to be petulant).
As for ‘keeping pace’, is more DR ahead of higher resolution? Is DPAF better than IBIS? Is a broader selection of lenses better than lower cost systems? (Oh, wait...Canon has both of those.) The point is, you don’t get to define ‘better’ or ‘ahead’ for anyone but you. Nor do you get to define what is innovative – the fact that you don’t need/want a new feature or capability doesn’t mean it’s not innovative. Everyone must define what’s best for them, and generally people make their buying choices based on those definitions.
There’s no objective measure of ‘better’, but camera sales can be objectively assessed. So, while it’s impossible to state objectively that Sony is ‘ahead’ of Canon or that Canon is ‘better’, a logical conclusion from Canon’s market share is that the majority of camera buyers believe Canon best meets their needs.
I’m certainly not suggesting that you or anyone else base a buying decision on a camera’s popularity. As I stated, buy what’s best for you. For me, that’s Canon. The most recent example is the drop in ND adapter for the EOS R which is an innovation unmatched by any other manufacturer, and enables me to easily achieve long exposures with my TS-E 17 and 11-24/4L (two other innovations unmatched by any other manufacturer). Gee, that’s three areas where Canon is ‘ahead’ in just one sentence.
Although market share shouldn’t drive your buying choices, don’t make the mistake of thinking it can’t affect them. Many people touted the Samsung NX series as being far ‘ahead of’ and ‘better than’ Canon’s MILCs. But you can’t choose to buy one today, because the NX couldn’t capture sufficient market share and Samsung abandoned the MILC market.
Incidentally, CAJ is not one of the individual holdings in my portfolio, although I can’t rule out the possibility that it’s a component of one of the mutual funds in which I have invested.