It’s lucky because to a lot of android fans it isn’t really about consumer outcomes, it’s about finally legislating a solution to the android-iOS war.

If you can’t win in the marketplace of ideas, just ban walled gardens entirely. Flip the table and ban your competitors’ business model, bioshock style.

Now of course, since obviously most android fans aren’t actually owners of a major company… they aren’t really “your competitor” unless you’re parasocially attached… this is a rather obvious commentary on the degree of parasocial attachment that so many people seem to have towards android and against apple… but here we are.

https://paulgraham.com/fh.html

In short: Freudian slip. They said the quiet part out loud. Hurting apple is the goal here.

> If you can’t win in the marketplace of ideas, just ban walled gardens entirely. Flip the table and ban your competitors’ business model, bioshock style.

But the DMA doesn't ban walled gardens. It requires the availability of competitive alternative marketplaces, which can certainly just lead to multiple walled gardens.

This is like saying "if you can't win the market, just ban slavery completely". Walled gardens are plain wrong, no need to invent a "market" justification.

They eventually will comply. In the meantime, they provide money via fines.