> buy advice/services from an expert with similarly aligned interests.

For most people, that's probably the walled gardens that people not on HN don't complain about.

No, the walled garden is the walled garden. The expert consultant is often a relative or favorite blogger or golfing buddy or corporate IT person.

How many of us have set up a clueless person's computer? We give them a restricted user account, so they can't install 500 random spyware/adware toolbars. We change the IE/Edge shortcut to open Firefox instead. We install ad-blockers and script-blockers with an overly generous whitelist. Maybe we even install Linux with remote admin, and automatic updates, and just slap on a wm that looks vaguely like Windows. Their expert is us, or people like us, and our services are not always bought with spendable currency.

I don't always enjoy being that expert, or getting paid for it in cookies and ugly sweaters. And in that situation, the walled garden is great. We can all roll our clueless friends up in carpets and dump them over the wall, where they can stumble around all day without getting hurt.

But some people can actually make a business out of it. They do exist. And some of them won't shamelessly price-gouge their clueless customers.

The difference is, that that user can turn off the walled garden if they will. That user can also choose what it wants inside the garden instead of being told what he can use by someone from California which may or may not share the values or culture.

And what I'm saying is that for most people that expert is Apple, or Microsoft, or Google depending on what OS/Device we're talking about. And the company running the walled garden is that expert because they have already paid them to be such.