[AnimalMuppet]

Is being present on Uber Eats really necessary for a restaurant's survival these days? If so, why? Is it because Uber Eats has become how customers find restaurants? And if so, how has it done so? It wasn't just by having a lot of money and setting up a website. (See pets.com for a counterexample.)

Uber Eats provides value to (at least some) eaters, who therefore use it to decide which restaurants to patronize. (I can't tell you why they do so; I don't use it myself, and I don't understand why anyone would want to.) The restaurants then have to be part of Uber Eats (at a cost), or to miss out on those customers who use Uber Eats. If Uber Eats charges more than it's worth, then the restaurants won't sign up.

> It's not investments that are the problem. It's the way whole professions are "enslaved" by investors who simply make a pile of money, scale things up and build a portal, which then becomes the new market leader.

You don't become a market leader by having a lot of money and building a portal. You do it by providing something that people want enough for them to use your portal. Otherwise you get ignored.

> (Of course, if you keep thinking inside the box of the free-market, then you will think this is all ok, but that is not the point).

I think my box matches the reality of the world more than your box does. Maybe you need to think outside of your box a bit too...