But that is presupposing that a) data is undeniably king as a competitive edge, (it might be, but we don't know this for sure, we might be in for a surprise), and b) that Snapchat is simply unable to make any significant change in its operations.

The Snapchat team is ostensibly pretty talented, and apparently on fire right now, so who knows, they might start something new on the side and link it to Snapchat which may really take off.