Ripoff yes, stolen no. They used similar, mostly the same, parts but even streamed their shit (Putting it together etc.). If you don't edit shit and just slap it together like most "Model Creators" it'll looks really similar. Don't get me wrong, I don't like them either but it's useless to create even more drama. It's known they ain't original and have no sorts of morals.
If you're already talking optimization, especially when it comes to public models: You can super easily use CATS to merge bone weights, resulting in less bones in total. You can easily hit less than 32 db transforms and still have db in hair (even long), tail, ears, chest, ..