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Because what was notable about Doom Patrol et al was that they were very different from the characteristics of Marvel that caused it to dominate the market: cross-title continuity, heroes with emotional and psychological problems as a given rather than as an exception, and long-term storylines.
That's a good point. DC really didn't reach this point until the early 1980's. I think that Wolfman & Perez's New Teen Titans and the Levitz & Giffin Legion began ushering in this era in. As you pointed out earlier, by the time that Crisis came about, it had spread finally throughout most of the line.

And I think it's fair to mention that, while it was on a much, much smaller scale, it worked both ways. Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One were both DC-style clones of Brave and the Bold. They both featured stand-alone, plot-driven stories that had little or no affect on the continuity of either Spider-Man or Fantastic Four. (There were some short-lived exceptions in each series -- the Claremont & Byrne run on MTU, and the Project Pegasus storyline in MTIO).