[killjoywashere]

This. I work with a company that is incredibly enmeshed with a government. They essentially do the hard analytical work to figure out what markets of the future might look like. Every once in a while, the company works on something that's obviously going to make markets and someone thinks "Hey, why don't we just build these services inside the company? It would be so much easier." And then the seniors are like "Naw, that's ok, let the companies form. They'll figure it out." The issue is this company would risk its credibility with the government if they started acting on their own advice ahead of legislation. They're in a position where taking action on their own recommendations would make insider trading look benign by comparison.

I feel like Apple is in a similar situation with its platform: sure they could abuse it. But not if they're long term greedy.