No argument there. I think the benefits were the same, just much less so with methodologies. It seems there are a lot of great ideas that promulgate through the methodologies and then are employed sans the methodology. For example, look at UML and RUP. Granted, UML was an entirely independent idea from RUP, but as a notation it was introduced by the guys who created RUP. If you look at the number of shops that employ RUP versus those that employ UML, I'd say the numbers are highly favoring the latter. Similarly, test-first-design was introduced to the masses by XP, and many shops include this in their cycles without actually using XP.
On another note, I think just being able to point someone new to these ideas to a resource is very valuable. Consider how many people used to say "read Code Complete" (and still do) when asked rudimentary questions. Everyone benefits when these concepts are unified, and luckily we're beginning to unify the vernacular for higher-level architectural abstractions like in PoEAA. Now when someone asks me a question about an architecture that has been regurgitated a thousand times in different language each time (just try asking someone "What is .NET?"), I just point them to PoEAA.
I'm rambling...
