Efficient? Maybe. But without competition of any kind, there's a possibility we'd still be using DOS lol. There can still be advancements of course under such a system, but I figure the progress would be a lot slower.

On the flip side, I can almost see part of your argument. The weather is a perfect example of your argument. The US government funds all the weather models out there, but due to lobbying, they're not allowed to actually have a website that tells us the weather. Instead we get like 5 crappy ad-infested sites that are terrible to use and just make a few people rich. It's insane.