Epic could compete. But I believe they did their approach too forcefully.

I personally refuse to use EGS because I don't like how they approached the market by starting this exclusive war on PC. I wished they kept that to consoles only. If they did a co-release on both Steam and EGS but offer a consistent 10€ discount compared to Steam I'd be more open to it instead.

This in addition to Tencent (and by that extent the chinese gov) have a ~40% of shares of the company. That's a considerable amount of foothold. And I vote with my wallet by not giving them more of my data.
I have to mention though, that I have an EpicGames account and have played Fortnight as well as use and play UE-games and tried out the UE-engine. But I have the option in life to not give them more.