The point is that avoiding Apple and Google, while it may be technically and theoretically possible, is going to make your life extraordinarily complicated and is completely unrealistic for the average person in our modern society.

I don't think your "let the markets handle it" solution will work (at least, it hasn't worked for the past 20 years, has it?). America screwed up. We let a duopoly control our technology, and there's no point in defending these powers like Apple, Facebook and Google who repeatedly attempt to undermine our sovereignty and privacy. As much as I'd love for everyone on this earth to use Nextcloud and Linux, we both know that's not a reasonable expectation.

Everyone knows it, there's bipartisan support behind Big Tech regulation right now in America. Regulation is inevitable, the real question is how long we have until the lobbying money runs out...