How can it be possible for the "buyer" to assess the cost of something if it was never offered for a price other than 0.00 Can the "alternative to free" be "co

How can it be possible for the "buyer" to assess the cost of something if it was never offered for a price other than 0.00 Can the "alternative to free" be "considered" if that which is "free" has never before been offered for a price greater than zero Can the "alternative to free" be "considered" when there is no such alternative (e.g. because alternatives have been acquired or blocked by a monopolist) What if companies exist to serve advertisers and other customers and are not actually "serving" users What if it was shown that many users do not actually require storage of data in data centers What if the needs of users and the needs of data collectors are truly not aligned What if users' "choices" are nonexistant or illusory