The old rule is reminiscent of: 1. legal restrictions, in some states, prohibiting craft-beer brewers from selling directly to retailers or to the public, and

The old rule is reminiscent of: 1. legal restrictions, in some states, prohibiting craft-beer brewers from selling directly to retailers or to the public, and requiring them instead to go through middleman distributors — and of course those wealthy distributors wield lots of political power (via state-legislature campaign contributions) to keep those restrictions in place; and 2. similar auto-dealership laws, in states like Texas, that prohibit car manufacturers (e.g., Tesla) from maintaining in-state showrooms of their own to sell directly to buyers — again, the wealthy middleman car dealers are politically powerful and have successfully lobbied hard to keep those dealership laws in place.