I have to agree with Michael Dorfman here. In particular, I don't think anything about conducting A/B testing suggests the origin of the inspiration. There's no reason why you can't A/B test a totally novel design. You could argue that the final progress Phil makes is as much an A/B test as the failed, disingenuous A/B test that Rita rejects. The motivation and source of the test are totally different, but that's a failed experiment, not a failure of the method.