History: Why [insert lossless format x here]?
I do not ask "do we really need this many?".
Rather I ask "why did they come around?", and the question "what particular feature is (/was originally) this format's raison d'être?" is part of it. I disregard from the discussion the rationale for corporations like Apple and Microsoft (and Real ...) to have Their Very Own Format, Period. And the DRM-driven need for MLP.
Obvious candidate 1: Compression rate. In OptimFrog's own words: "Its main goal is to reduce at maximum the size of audio files". Plain and simple; speed sacrificed. Guess LA had the same goal. (BTW, has OptimFrog dethroned LA in this respect? No? And they are undeveloped since 2006 and 2004, respectively?)
Obvious candidate 2: fairly good compression rate at high decoding speed. Hence e.g. WavPack and FLAC. WavPack seems to me to offer more or less everything FLAC does, except FLAC is wider supported -- but as WavPack is the oldest, this obviously was not the case when FLAC was born. So why FLAC in the first place? Was WavPack only symmetric (slow decoding) back then? Or non-freely licenced? Josh, you there?
And why e.g. Monkey's? Or TTA? No offence to their qualities, but what niche do/did they really fill?
And why yet another? Why TAK? Well if I understand TBeck right, it seems like a fun driven idea -- and if his idea of "fun" is to outrun the competition in compression at given speed (encoding + decoding), then don't blame him.