Also if it wasn't a black box, then scammers would be fleecing everyone.
Most smaller players are getting eaten or drowned, with the way Google Ads has implemented their changes. It was not like this 3 or or even 10 years ago, especially in the tech sphere.
So yes the state of Google could be a black mirror to the rising Gini Coefficients, HFT, armies of lawyers and private wealth management that create systems so complex that no - even upper middleclass person - will be able to enter or stay in the market.
AI is probably going to make this exponential. The ones with the money will be able to hire the tech and wealth expertise to grow while the barrier to entry just keeps rising.
Or is there a less dark outlook for the smaller or just midsized entrepreneurial endeavours?
Google is a mainly running a scam these days with completely blackboxed systems that absolutely fleece the little guy when not doing outright criminal auction price manipulation.
I don't know why this hasn't gotten more media attention. Probably because of stockholm syndrome in the publishing sphere.
Yes they pioneered amazing things but where they earn their money now, is through a labyrinth of dark designs and obfuscated systems in the borderlands of legality.