[gribbly]

>Is this model better?

I don't understand your logic, Facebook/Google is data mining your personal information with or without royalty free codecs.

The reason all these companies are banding together to create a royalty free codec is because all of them realize that online video will only become even more pervasive, and as such there is long term gain for them by getting rid of video royalties for good, and the HEVC licensing debacle must have eliminated any trace of doubt.