It's possible collusion is a factor, however another observation I've had could explain it: the VC-finance industrial complex - in that there are dominant incum

It's possible collusion is a factor, however another observation I've had could explain it: the VC-finance industrial complex - in that there are dominant incumbents who have so much profit that they simply buy any up and coming new competitors in the market, to which the founders and VCs are happy for that payday. Or you have two big companies doing mergers, giving multiple advantages including a bigger pool of profits/revenues to leverage and outbid their other large competitors in the market. This is the main reason that they're all able to continue to charge arguably unreasonable and unnecessary fees to restaurants, because the barrier to entry is heavily having enough funds to build such a platform - and the gatekeepers are in the VC industrial complex where most want unreasonable returns (requiring unreasonable, excessive fees and other grey or dark practices) and an exit event in 10 years.