I think this concept, and this entire article to a large degree, at missing the entire state of the space industry. The competition in space is mostly a facade. This page [1] provides regularly updated overviews on most metrics of space 'marketshare' and SpaceX dominates to an exceptional degree by every single metric. For instance as of last quarter they were responsible for 83% of all mass launched to space, carried out 40 launches while the rest of the world combined did 36, and so on.

So for all intents and purposes SpaceX is not only the US space industry, but largely the world's space industry. And it was started on an ideological basis, not a financial one. Like the saying goes, 'How do you become a millionaire in aerospace? Start out as a billionaire in aerospace.' It's simply not an industry where you can throw money at it and succeed. Blue Origin, which only recently finally managed to send their first craft to orbit, was actually started before SpaceX and funded by Bezos bucks back when Musk was teetering on bankrupt.

It's also not an industry where you can just smart your way through it. Many clever individuals with money, John Carmack being one with perhaps the most name recognition, have tried their hand at aerospace, and failed. For that matter - China has all the wealth, human talent, and such of the largest economy with nearly the largest population. And even they, in terms of launch capabilities trail well behind SpaceX.

So basically the whole concept of the current state of things being a huge success for "commercial space" is, in large part, a facade. Had SpaceX not emerged then "commercial space" in the US would have been a complete failure, and people would be bemoaning such a waste of money to try to privatize things that history had shown were only able to be effectively executed by governments.

[1] - https://brycetech.com/briefing