The frontier is run by strongmen, as it gets settled, you need stronger rulers. But because there's not enough there to interest the big players back home to br

The frontier is run by strongmen, as it gets settled, you need stronger rulers. But because there's not enough there to interest the big players back home to bring in infrastructure and big-city politics, these services wind up being provided by the mob, autonomous players far enough away from civilization to avoid the law, strong enough to enforce their vision, even on the strongmen. As the frontier gets more and more settled, the big players gradually make their way in. Civilization is huge and it takes time to build. The big players have to work with the old strongmen because they don't have enough boots on the ground yet to enforce order. That's the position Apple is in right now with their content-blocking API. Ad blocking companies are the mob running the web content frontier towns, the ad companies are all the ruffians trying to make a quick buck. Apple is starting to build railroads and bank branches and hotels and courthouses and cultivate property developers, but the mob is still there and they have to be dealt with, otherwise the problem the mob solved is going to bite them in the ass.