Agreed, I think there is also some cynical protectionism, in that the big distributors and producers want to maintain their monopoly, and so they lobby against

Agreed, I think there is also some cynical protectionism, in that the big distributors and producers want to maintain their monopoly, and so they lobby against new craft producer licenses that would compete with them. An example is the Type 75 "brewpub" license in CA, which lets a brewery sell their beer on-premises. The distributors lobbied to smuggle in a requirement that a Type 75 has to have at least one beer on tap that is bought from a distributor and not brewed on-site. There's no defensible reason for this requirement, it's pure pork. Distributors just want to make it harder for brewpubs to enter the market and compete with them, and ensure they get a kickback from every brewpub that does open.