It made me so happy in 1999.
You were ahead of the curve with the Lucas hatred.
I wasn't even aware of the Matrix and SW rivalry, but it was surprising to see Matrix win the Oscar for special effects and the instant impact of Matrix on pop culture by the year 2000.
If I remember correctly Matrix, SW, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, X-Men, Pirates...etc coexisted in pop culture from 2000-2005, without any comparisons or rivalries among the fanbases like there seems to be nowadays with Marvel and DC, perhaps because they were all different, but the Matrix influenced was there in those other franchises without question, especially in the action genre, but even Pirates used the bullet time.
For a minute there, the Matrix made all other action films and SW look and feel outdated. I remember in 2003 when Terminator 3 was coming out wondering if it could reclaim its "throne" in the action genre, since I thought T2 was the best action film of all time. I definitely remember thinking, "I hope the T 800 doesn't do martial arts Matrix style", so yeah, the influence was still there. Matrix sure was a game changer, like a proto superhero movie using technology to allow the characters to do the things only possible in the comics and cartoons. Then we got Spiderman and his CGI body dodging things and other superhero films with characters breaking the laws of physics. Today we have lots of rubber Neos in movies.