Congratulations to the ElementaryOs team, I recognize the effort you have put developing your own tools in a great language like Vala.
I don't believe that you try to mimic OSX because I have used it and they are not as similar, I think the people say it because they see the elegance you have put on it.
I haven't yet tried the OS so I can not speak from an experience, but after watching the introduction video, I think it was pretty clear that they took some design ideas from OS X (I'm putting it lightly). Even the wallpaper was the same.
I'm downloading the OS right now and I hope I'll like it. It always makes me happy to see people trying to get casual users to use Linux. I hope they succeed. Having said that, the introduction video left a bad taste in my mouth.
Update: I'm using it right now and I love it! Great job. I have to give it more time, but I may even use this as my main OS on my notebook if everything goes smoothly. Looks very promising.
I don't believe that you try to mimic OSX because I have used it and they are not as similar, I think the people say it because they see the elegance you have put on it.