'free market' is not really the wrong issue here. It was more of 'web 2.0' thing. Hook your service up to this other micro service and get a cool thing. It w

'free market' is not really the wrong issue here. It was more of 'web 2.0' thing. Hook your service up to this other micro service and get a cool thing. It was one of the main selling points of web2.0. But turns out your service is very dependent on that microservice. I have seen this happen over and over in many products even completely free ones. Service X needs service Y. The people who own the machines for service y say 'hey this is expensive can you chip in?'... crickets. So they turn themselves into a paid for API, or turn it off. Suddenly service X can no longer function even slightly correctly without that service Y. Had a neighbor that was mad someone was bulldozing a bunch of trees behind his house. He had even paid the builder of his house to 'live near trees'. But he however did not own them. The real owner decided something else was to be done with that land. The lesson? You dont own it, you dont control it.