"Born This Way" was released at the time that it was safest to release songs with that kind of message, a la "Firework," "We R Who We R" and "Raise Your Glass."
The song just fizzled out because it simply wasn't a good enough song to lead off an entire era with. Has it reached 4M sales yet?
(Also, Adele v. Gaga has been a thing since 2011, so it's not really new.)