The actual gripe here is that for physical products of any kind, of course companies routinely buy and completely take apart their competitors products. But in

The actual gripe here is that for physical products of any kind, of course companies routinely buy and completely take apart their competitors products. But in software make-believe land you can write any wish you have into an EULA. There are entire companies whose only mission is buying electronics, reverse engineering it into its constituent parts and producing a detailed report that tells you whats in it, how it's made and most important what it costs to make. That's possible because when you buy something, you own it. Only in software make-believe do we allow selling some very ill-defined "right to use" with no guarantees or rights. Protecting the inner workings of a product is precisely what patents are for.