I'm fine with regulation to prevent monopolies / duopolies.

In practice, regulation almost never actually does that.

Every major industry is a monopoly or duopoly if you're even a bit generous with the term.

I'm just pointing out there is nothing unique here with tech or data.

And the politics are mostly theater that often makes things more monopolistic, not less.

I read that as saying there's nothing to be done, monopolies are natural, we can't stop the order of things without making everything worse, we must just acquiesce and learn to live with them.

Is that correct? I have a hard time thinking that is true.

I think you're making a mistake confusing the way things are today in terms of market concentration with the way things were in the past. In terms of market concentration in the US at least, things were massively different even 20 years ago.

Adding a link to the Boston Fed report on it from a couple years ago: https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/current-policy-perspe...