Mr. Olson does not defend his brand because the man is super humble, but he also knows that he got many ideas from other luthiers on his early careers. He is a generous man and shares any of his ideas and tools with anyone who asks.
Only people that could possibly claim some lineage to Jim Olson would be Applegate and Heinonen though.
Jim helped Brian Applegate a lot in his early career mentoring him and coaching him, and allowing him to use his SJ model dimensions and specs. I think he even carved necks for Brian initially in his CNC. Applegate since then made many changes and has his own voice on his guitars, though you can find similarities between the two SJs.
Drew Heinonen worked as a helper for 2 years with Jim until 2 years ago, and Jim was gracious enough to let Drew use his SJ dimensions and specs, when Drew went solo.
From the builder's perspective, I think they are just grateful to have Jim as their mentor/friend. It is us, the end customers and dealers, who wants to link them more than maybe they should be. I see similar things happening in the Somogyi world. Many claims by the customers and dealers, "this particular one is better than the real Somogyi (and much cheaper)". But I have not played any of the ex-apprentices guitars that were as good as the real Somogyi.
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