[Grimblewald]

Tell my economics textbook not me. Free markets are defined, in part, by the absence of coercive impediments to economic activity, which explicitley includes restrictions on entry.

see "low barriers for entry"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market

[jtbayly]

"Low" is relative. But we've got people creating new models with millions of dollars, not billions. Granted, not thousands either. It's low enough that I don't think the barrier to entry is a problem.

[Grimblewald]

Good golly miss molly them goalposts sure can fly

right, so basically the only people who can enter the market are those part of the same club who have brought us the stripped down and dated wonders before us today.

Take the mobile phone market, there is basically no innovation going on these days. Small iterative steps and minor improvements, each new generation another sensor removed or new consumer hostile bloat added, because everyone in the club agrees on how to fuck the consumer, irrespective of what the consumer wants. It's an illusion of choice.