Really? GFW definitely helped a lot of newer internet company take off by shifting the market from a US directed tastes to a more domestic. I.e. one would not immediately think Instagram is cooler than douyin. (As a result, Instagram like photos sharing were never main stream)
GFW by itself is no small engineering feat either. It's technology is widely relevant in many technical areas related to traffic control and network management. For example, deep packet inspection was applied in GFW, and had been quite useful in intrusion detection. Of course now with the popularity of encryption, DPI is no longer very relevant. But that's the example of it being advancing technology.
Baidu has worse UX after google search exited the mainland china. The many so called newer internet companies are actually copying and localizing. Blocked by the GFW, the inaccessible instagram can never be the main stream. Instead of the detecting intrusion, DPI plays a huge role in controlling the freedom of speech. And with the help of ML, DPI is even smarter than before. Fewer people of new generation in China know Google, Facebook and Twitter, and they only know the second-class analogue of these service providers.
It’s also the mother of the GFW, which greatly impede the innovation. For example, many latest IT technology cannot be speeded effectively.