Yes, I'd say centralization of attention/discovery is an inevitable force of the internet. For digital products, say "content", it has been there since the ear

Yes, I'd say centralization of attention/discovery is an inevitable force of the internet. For digital products, say "content", it has been there since the early beginnings. When people had their "independent" blog, already then they had blog rolls linking to other bloggers and over time a class of top bloggers emerged. A handful getting all traffic, the other 99.99% gets nothing. Before search engines, we had directories. Lists of links. But there's only so much space, so a few sites get all traffic, the rest none. We democratized it with things like Digg, but in reality 3 people decided what gets on the homepage. So yes, it seems to me that centralization of attention is built-in. Or rather, it's a human condition. A centralized service offers more convenience and people tend to do the most convenient thing. Creators do the exact same thing. ...and then we blame the platform. My point is that WE did it. WE created the situation, not the platform. As for physical goods, I consider that to be somewhat of a separate topic. The internet in itself does not magically produce and ship ultra cheap goods. Such a thing is only possible due to very specific international trade circumstances.