It was, and I felt the same way.

But I fear I was naive, and didn’t see that a single distributor/platform dominating could be bad. Even only having two or three would be bad.

It was easy to cheer them on when they were an alternative to cable and broadcast and home video. But now that all those other things have become diminished, I think it’s strange to complain that one service doesn’t have all content from all producers.

I also think music streaming platforms are a bit strange. But the sheer volume of songs vs movies and tv make that a different animal. And we have managed to have some competition there.

I think people should be arguing for content to be across more platforms, not for it to all be on one platform. But you’re not going to get Warner brothers and Disney to agree to swapping content unless they are required to by law. If people argue for one platform having everything, they might be doing it because they see it as the most plausible “remedy” to their woes. But that’s not a good idea.

We might need to get distribution platforms and production companies broken into separate entities. Studios probally shouldn’t own platforms. Just like they shouldn’t own theater chains.

Exhibition and content creation should be separate for the long term health of both parties and consumers.

That was always going to happen though, with or without fragmentation. Whether it's netflix or gamepass or reddit or discord or bluesky or whatever the same enshittification playbook always applies if you're trying to make a profit: offer a "good deal" until people have bought into your service enough to feel like they can't do without it, and then start slaughtering the piggies.