"But “competing against everyone” is a losing strategy."
Who says that? New times require new dimensions in competition. There are a lot of devs here, we're all here. It's just a matter of structuring and incentives.
And I think we _have_ a tech problem. No product is fully developed and everyone knows things are buggy. Even with good marketing, we would have a lot of disappointments after onboarding. For example, how do you explain to the masses in a non-technical way that you can't change/delete things? The lack of such a basic function alone will cause a rethink in online behavior and will also cause some regrets.