In this version of events, is the fact that Arial's kerning tables match Helvetica's exactly just an incredible coincidence?

Arial seems to have been designed as a regressive version of Helvetica, it’s like an interim step between Akzidenz and Helvetica. Non-parallel terminals being the most distinctive, also the influence of the Akzidenz cap R can be seen.

In this respect, it’s like an early design which would have been discarded in the development of Helvetica. Conceptually, designing something in such a regressive manner seems to go against the spirit of progression the modernist design of Helvetica implies.