I read that, on average, Amazon collects 50% of the cost in fees; from sellers.

And how much do you think traditional retail marks up prices from wholesale to retail?

Why is that relevant?

Because Amazon is a retail company and the amount that Amazon charges is not much different than the cost overhead of getting any product through the channel.

so my (theoretical) company that optimizes to keep these costs lower shouldn't be able to compete on those fees?

Sure, if all you care about is money, then you can already go on Amazon and choose alternate vendors that are available at a lower price with slower shipping.

So you don't even know what the article is discussing. Amazon is killing competition and increasing costs to consumers.

I happen to know exactly what I’m talking about - you right now can look for an item on Amazon and see “this product is available at a lower price with <slower shipping>”

You right now can set up a site on Shopify and sell your goods.

If you are selling a differentiate product instead of cheap crap imported (or drop shipped) from China, you can create demand without going through Amazon.

For instance, I was specifically looking for Samsonite zipper less luggage because I trusted that brand and it wasn’t available on Amazon. They chose not to sell on Amazon and I bought it directly

-- I happen to know exactly what I’m talking about - you right now can look for an item on Amazon and see “this product is available at a lower price with <slower shipping>” Sure, on Amazon. Not other platforms.

I'm not going to bother explaining further, but thanks for confirming you don't understand the issue. It's not my job to educate you.