Why Dreadnought remained revolutionary even when designs were already converging

Why was HMS Dreadnought so influential if warship design was already heading in that direction?

She was the first to cross the threshold and instantly became the standard against which every battleship was compared.

Other navies were already moving toward ships similar to Dreadnought. Crossing the threshold first still mattered. Once Dreadnought entered service, every existing battleship and every new design was judged against her. She converted a developing trend into an immediate fleet-wide benchmark.