I think you're missing what makes consumer companies valuable. It's all about distribution. They get way more data (usage, browsing, etc.), they get 3.5 billion users (this is the main thing) and they get to be the interface for all those people onto the web. I just don't think they can afford it.

They've consumed yesterday's web.

Why not get the user to pay the energy and processing bill for subsequent rounds?

Being able to track the habits of 3.5 billion users at source is probably quite useful, too.

Imagine using the largest browser user base as an unlockable botnet for scraping, built right into their browser itself.