Having had long conversations with those in the know. It’s not as simple as “the other engine was a better option”. GE had many many similar problems as RR but GE was better tooled up for spares and engine overhauls.
Yes Rolls bears most of the responsibility however a lot of it was driven by Boeing. They insisted on a cut off date where no further modifications to the design could be made (read in to that testing) They had a deadline that was driven by timelines of worldwide production. If Rolls had had more time to test the engine (rather than the design being completely finalised on day x) then the issue will have become more apparent sooner (and before so many engines were in commercial use).
Lets not forget that the 787 has had many teething problems. The RR engine issue is by far and away completely the worst, but remember the batteries catching fire? Yes Rolls made mistakes (serious mistakes that they also made in the spey engine) such as not coating the entire blade including the fir tree. But some of those errors were driven by a very demanding customer.