weird po-mo Menolly loop

So I was reading a book review journal (Booklist or Library Journal, maybe), and it mentioned a new Anne McCaffrey book that didn't sound as egregiously bad as her last few, so I checked it out. And then it sat around and gathered dust for a week or ten days, until I read a review so scathing and funny that I decided to return the book unread. I was struck by a passage from the review that implied that this new McCaffrey effort was a Mercedes Lackey ripoff - essentially, it seemed, Lackey re-creates the Harper Hall from Anne McCaffrey, but with fencing and horses thrown in.
I only knew of Mercedes Lackey from her work in all those Darkover anthologies I'd read in high school and college. But I realized that if I'd read short stories from her and hadn't hated them, and she writes derivative versions of books by Anne McCaffrey that I like, that I should check her out.
And seriously, it has been well worth it. I've been reading Arrows of the Queen, and I have to stop every five or ten pages to boggle at how similar it is to Anne McCaffrey's Dragonsong and Dragonsinger. I mean, similar in the smallest details:

McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: ordinary, conservative people live in Holds
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: ordinary, conservative people are called Holderfolk
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: main character both timid and unexpectedly competent. And poor, so she's humbled by her new surroundings
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: yep
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: heroine's dark, curly, unruly hair
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: yep
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: the people wear tunics
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: yep
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: heroine studies in a place where both Harpers and Healers learn
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: yep, but they're called Bards, and there are Heralds thrown in
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: rich students, not officially Harpers or Healers, who are bullies
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: yep
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: heroine has a special role in her new craft, that only she can fill
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: yep
McCaffrey's Dragonsong/singer: heroine "Impresses" fire-lizards
Lackey's Arrows of the Queen: Heroine "Chosen" by a horse, with the same sort of mental link

There are more parallels, but I just can't be bothered to mention them all. And I'm only 100 pages into the book! That said, I'm enjoying this Dragonsinger rip-off, because Dragonsinger is a favorite of mine.
So, I'm reading Lackey, because McCaffrey ripped off Lackey in the new book I didn't read, but that's okay because Lackey ripped off McCaffrey 20 years ago.