There's lots of reliable and user-friendly streaming technology on the internet. Youtube, Hulu, Vimeo, Vudu, BBC, RedBox, Amazon Prime, etc. It's not trivial, sure, but it's much easier than building a modern fiber-coax cable network. As for content, it's valuable because it's hard (and expensive) to make content that appeals to the mass market. I don't think people care whether the streaming technology is Netflix's or Vudu's. I do think they care whether they're watching Warner Bro's "Pacific Rim" versus SyFy's "Atlantic Rim."

You're right that Netflix and Amazon are creating value through their original content businesses. That's kind of orthogonal to this debate. That original content gives them a natural leverage over the ISP's that their role as content middlemen does not.