Comment by Falos

People are /loosely/ averse and annoyed, but towards the market in general and that doesn't really materialize in a direct loss. "Boy I sure hate how _______ these days" isn't aimed at some particular product. The phrase names the scene at large.

Yes, everything sucks now, will Joe Sixpack thus stop buying ...everything?

In such an environment why WOULDN'T I take advantage of the nuisances that I can now safely get away with? I gain control, data, monopolistic single-sourcing, and good old revenue, all by being just a little bit shitty. No more than the next guy.

"Quality" is greatly amorphous before buying a product and the stage is increasingly virtual. The only certain metric can be ye olde "bottom line" (price) and indulging shitty practices allows you to undercut. Consumer gets what they pay for but reckons most other offerings have the same shitty nuisances (and is mostly right) and reckons it's an uphill struggle to ferret out which ones are genuinely good quality and not consumer-second (and is definitely right, people crave the product opinions of genuine humans and these are being increasingly coopted)