You do not understand how it is not free: It's sold to OEMs in exchange for control of their devices and mandatory placements. In countries who have working ant

You do not understand how it is not free: It's sold to OEMs in exchange for control of their devices and mandatory placements. In countries who have working antitrust law, Google now charges OEMs for Play Services access per device, where they cannot legally force the OEM to default to Chrome and Google Search. And you, as the consumer, pay for it with literally all of your privacy.