Not really. It doesn’t really prevent competition. You’re welcome to make your own cheese (or whatever) that competes with the protected variant. You’re just not allowed to call it the same thing.
It’s more like a measure to prevent shitty corporate cost cutting and skimpflation strategies from ruining a thing into oblivion and ensuring that you can rely on a certain level of quality that is associated with the traditional product.
The system might have it’s downsides, but I’m definitely on board with the intent.