They have properly acknowledged the fact that the Valorant agents are fighting copies of themselves.

In Team Fortress 2, despite nine meet the team videos showing Red and Blu teams fighting, has never addressed in the lore why each team has the same mercenaries, barring a brief mention in a comic. Overwatch on the other hand only acknowledged the unlikely team ups (such as Widowmaker and Tracer) through voice lines and never even acknowledged the existence of the enemy copies.

Now here comes Riot, bringing this aspect front and centre, as a key component of the lore. This was a smart decision. They have solved the biggest plot hole in a character based shooter.

I personally have a soft spot for developers who choose to incorporate mechanics of the game into the games plot line rather than ignore them entirely. For example Bioshock and Metal Gear.