I agree that the analogue with feudalism is stretched, and I can't help thinking that the Techno-Feudalism idea was chosen mostly for the associations that it brings with it: dark ages, lords and peasantry, serfdom and war, etc.
I don't get why instead we shouldn't compare the current times with the early stages of the industrial revolution, when factory owners exploited masses of workers who could only choose between accepting whatever terms the factory offered, or starving. It would also be a more productive metaphor, because while feudalism spontaneously disappeared with the birth of an entirely new social order, the evils of the early industrial revolution were successfully defeated with collective action and progressive legislation. Which is what we probably need now.
I guess one difference is, the factory workers pushed towards engaging in brutal labor actually had it rough.
It's unclear whether the current system bring "horrible conditions" that need addressing. I don't want 9000 email providers, and the centralization of platforms has probably made life better. The argument that it crushes innovation might be true, but the number of "startups" that seem to gain large amounts of VC funding is quite high (they must be innovating something).
My gut reaction is generally "centralization / monopolies = bad", which is probably the feeling of a lot of people here. But we should actually ask ourselves whether the natural tendency towards centralization actually makes sense economically, especially since many aspects of the internet (communication, email, AI, compute time, etc) are all looking more like "utility" markets (where naturalistic monopoly formation has long been accepted by economists).
Feudalism has a negative connotation for sure, but again isn't that just a branding issue? The existing system is not great, imo. I think one can argue that the feudalism of the past had a far milder impact on individuals and was far less forceful than the governance of the present day. It is not possible to opt out of either system, but the level of resource extraction in the present system (40-50%) seems far higher than in feudal times.
I don't get why instead we shouldn't compare the current times with the early stages of the industrial revolution, when factory owners exploited masses of workers who could only choose between accepting whatever terms the factory offered, or starving. It would also be a more productive metaphor, because while feudalism spontaneously disappeared with the birth of an entirely new social order, the evils of the early industrial revolution were successfully defeated with collective action and progressive legislation. Which is what we probably need now.