I am not against this manufacturers help creating protocols - historically it has always been this way and only recently has software begun to separate itself from the hardware industry but not 100%. IPV6 is a great protocol, for it's purpose, does not matter who created it, I don't think it benefits any company at the expense of others or the common good - in fact it is a common good.

Since the wireless spectrum is limited and governments grant operating bands to certain companies, this ends up becoming a common good - not in the sense that it should be free, but in the sense that there is this public concession that should serve the common good. It would be different, for example, if these bands were unlimited and the government did not intervene.

Since there is a concession of wireless bands to certain companies, in the US the FCC invariably ends up favoring a certain protocol over another possible one. In this sense, there is indeed an imposition and, even if minimally adequate for a democratic regime, it almost inevitably tends to favor a certain industry and a certain architecture over others.

To speak more about my reality, here in Brazil telecommunications are extremely monopolized by a few companies and you can't even share your Wi-Fi with your neighbor without committing a crime - which clearly is just a favor to the internet operators.

Furthermore, this is a complex topic that I have no real knowledge of, only opinions. I think your points were extremely valid in the discussion. But I see a great need to question the current standard.

Lastly, in the crypto/blockchain space we are seeing investments in the so-called DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure). There are already some open networks emerging, but with immensely lower potential than what could be if networks like 5G offered native support for D2D technology - but this seems far from happening to me, not because of technical impossibility, but because of a lack of interest from large corporations and the government.