Also, the lawn guy now has a pricing tier for different grass heights that all in the end take the same amount of work.

But your lawn guy stays in business - which is relevant to them and to you (for as long as you're a customer). If the market is efficient, there should be reasonable competition that you can switch to that more aligns with your needs.

Except it's more like you originally purchased turf that's compatible with the provider's lawnmowers and, while you thought they were cutting the lawn, they were busy building a moat around your property. So now, switching involved ripping out the old turf, filling in the moat, and having new turf installed.

Then you realize that by the time you pay off the capital investments needed to switch to a new provider they'll be pulling the same stunt and you should've learned how to cut the grass on your own.

My lawn guy, and his competitor, just got acquired by a company that only mows the median strips along highways.

My lawn guy got shut down by google.

My lawn guy got bought by Google, cleverly integrated into Google Play Grass, eventually shifted over the the side behind the new 2.37m high spirea hedge (which is beautiful), then Google Play Grass got replaced with sign saying "It's time to switch to YouTube Groundskeeping!". And my lawn guy isn't included anymore.

It's absolutely not efficient in the sense you imagine.

The VC capital is concentrated in to the hands of a few players. They're not going to compete against themselves.

And nobody is going to compete against the titans.

The market is efficient at concentrating wealt in to the hands of those who already have it.