You're right, but I think the secondary effect is important. Hypothetically, if there was no intent to protect mark holders, the law could work differently: As long as the trademark is used for equivalent products, and there is no harm to the consumer, then it wouldn't matter who used the trademark. You'd think I'd be able to start a company to sell GE toaster ovens made in my personal back yard factory, if the end result was equivalent to what GE sells.
That’s why courts recognize trademark dilution as a valid reason to invalidate someone’s trademark. Consumers naturally start using prominent marks genetically as the difference between products disappears.
The practical problem is that there’s no real way to test this until a case is brought. You might be able to bring your own crock-pot to market, but unfortunately the only tool to legally evaluate whether that’s okay is the legal system itself. I’m not sure there’s a good way around that other than making the legal system more accessible in general.
