I'm pretty sure every movie company you named could have rendered the same thing in Cycles just fine. You still can't name a single important thing that can't be done with Cycles.
Speed is good, but you cherry picked some niche thing that's probably faster than Cycles (which you haven't provided evidence for). That's a silly argument.
Speed is good, but you cherry picked some niche thing that's probably faster than Cycles (which you haven't provided evidence for). That's a silly argument.
EDIT:
Thanks for the updated post, much more substance.