“It feels like everyone is now choosing its side. You can’t stay in the middle anymore. You are either dedicating all your CPU cycles to run JavaScript tracking you or walking away from the big monopolies. You are either being paid to build huge advertising billboards on top of yet another framework or you are handcrafting HTML.”
I’m pretty much always looking out for alternatives, and using alternative websites. What I’ve struggled most with are the homemaking websites, banking apps, and the smartphone OS itself. After that comes the ticket buying websites, like the occasional airfare, or if I need a taxi ride.
So, one can get away up to the point you are dealing with money and then either you’ll be an outcast or you are forced into sharing your personal info.
I don’t see a polarization in this. Even the OS calculator asks for network access. You can slow the leeching but you cannot avoid it completely without getting offline.