It’s not a clone of anything, it’s a genre idea that was floating around at the time and his is the version that took off. Sure it wasn’t divine inspiration in a vacuum, but nothing ever is. Predecessors had plenty of time to take off before Minecraft, and did not. Minecraft thoroughly took off before it sold out, I think it was the most expensive game acquisition ever. Minecraft didn’t engage in any sort of shady suppression, people just liked it.
And Notch isn’t an asshole, he’s clearly just some guy who found himself with billions and, like most people, didn’t suddenly become somebody who knows what to do in that role. He did the “rich guy stuff” that every average person would, then he started grasping at what’s next while becoming increasingly aware of himself as the limiting factor. You could say he should let people guide him, but he’s got millions trying and nobody to pick between them but himself.
Who cares man, he’s less evil than just about every other billionaire. The only way Notch is somebody to be pissed off at is if you expected him to be smarter and better than the rest of us just because he’s rich now, and if that’s how you think then the problem is you.