Sure there was. Remember cartridges for the game consoles? Or the clipper chip? (mostly about data but still a central form of control) Or HDCP. Or CSME which h

Sure there was. Remember cartridges for the game consoles? Or the clipper chip? (mostly about data but still a central form of control) Or HDCP. Or CSME which has PAVP. AGESA has a similar thing. Or the ACM validated by the ROM in all Intel CPUs. You can't even load an OS before you get it allowed by them. I think you meant to say: not directly visible by the user at the scale in terms of single-vendor profits. But that's a different thing which needs different treatment. Either antitrust laws or new laws will have something to say about that, because it boils down to 'power' that is currently legal as-is. You can be emotional about it, but that doesn't help the discussion.