There are far more useful coins than bcash to spill over into

$NANO $PASC $XHV $XTL $STRAT $ETC $ETH $DGB $DCR $UBQ $ZEC $LBC $KMD $LTC $FLT $DOGE $UNO $WDC ... the list goes on. Pick any coin with a sovereign chain that didnt need to fork bitcoins network and claim to be the "real" bitcoin. Just be original

That is just Roger Ver's opinion, you can disagree with it. I do. Bitcoin is Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin Cash. I'm not sure how you can imbue one man's opinion as something a protocol is claiming.

I'm talking about the very premise of BCH. Why fork when you can "do it right" with a new chain, a new genesis?

do it right" is just your opinion. Bitcoin is a permissionless protocol. Would you rather Bitcoin be a protocol that you need permission to use? Decentralization includes opposing development teams and miner/user hardforks, it's how the Satoshi Nakamoto set Bitcoin into motion.

So which protocol are we talking about? What really defines the end of bitcoin and the beginning of bitcoin cash? At what point is it a variant on the same protocol or becomes an alt? Genuinely curious

Bitcoin is a permissionless, decentralized protocol correct? Which means users/miners/devs can fork it and create another project. If you want to call Bitcoin Cash an altcoin that's up to you. I call it a Bitcoin Minority Fork that is competing for hash rate.