Tokyopop Fall Down, Going Pff.

[Epsilon]

Pretty easily - "the next Haruhi Suzimiya" doesn't follow the exact same plot line that all of the "regurgitated crap" does. Granted, neither does "the next Plan 9 from Outer Space", but at least the innovators are trying to come up with something original.

That's a nice idea in theory, but in reality what tends to sell is what is familiar. One Piece is the most popular manga in Japan by a wide margin and its very firmly following the tracks laid out by Dragonball before it, same with Bleach, Naruto and a lot of the other series out there which make a great deal of money.
If it weren't for people following what was already produced we would have never had Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and that would be a shame because that is far more awesome than any GiTS franchise which preceeded it.

It would be nice if the anime production companies would go
back to that approach... but most of them have hung up their shotguns
and are using photocopiers instead. (Note that the majority of the
original anime in any given half-decade come from a minority of
studios.)

When you're throwing enough of it at the wall, and seeing what sticks,
don't be surprised when nothing sticks to the spot where a dozen
previous throws have already been stuck. And if you're aiming at that
spot on purpose, well...

You say that as if this is some unique quality of this time. Anime (and in fact, all entertainment media) has always been full of derivative crap. The proportion of crap today is the same as it was ten years ago or thirty years ago or a hundred years ago.
Selective memory tends to prune out all the horrible anime and manga and visual novels produced over the last thirty years, but it was all there. It also tends to give more credit for creativity than a lot of work actually deserves. Many of the works we consider the seminal works of their genre are not so because they were especially creative, in fact when you look at them in context they often aren't. They were simply better done than other pieces of crap that happened to come out with the same genre at the same time.
To extend the metaphor into a conceit, it doesn't matter how much stuff is thrown at that point on the wall. Good work will shine through no matter what. It doesn't matter where they aim at, the quality of the work often has little to do with the premise or the expected genre or the target audience or what-have-you.
The trouble is that all that bad work they have to put out to support the occasional good work. As that bad work becomes less and less profitable (due to piracy) then there will be less and less good work produced.
You can't have it both ways. If you want more quality productions you're going to have to live with the fact that the amount fo shit will increase in direct propotion. If you try to shrink the shit, then the good stuff will shrink in proportion as well.
---------------
Epsilon