I’ve found many startups are merely “investments” by some entrepreneur that were intended from inception, whether explicitly or not, to be grown to a sufficiently negotiable state and sold to the biggest buyer. That’s not to say that big tech companies don’t buy-out their competition, but many startups also dream of being bought-out.

Yes, this is the crux of LineageOS. There is a fork called DivestOS that is more libré and reduces dependence on Google services, as well as having bootloader re-locking for some devices.

I don’t think it’s simply “left wing” being the problem any more, at least not the classical left. I’m generally left-leaning libertarian yet over the past few years (particularly since 2020) I’ve been called far-right, far-left, and every “-ist” and “-ism” in between, by people in various places. I think people in general have become “woke”, childish, and tribal – incapable of comprehending a point of view other than what is fed to them. One could see the mass downvoting without discourse as a minor form of “cancel culture”. These things are reflected in the general state of politics at large in many countries, also contributing to their decay.