It's a nice idea. The problem is that it's impossible. It's like saying "write sentences, not words" or "use a tool, not a knife or a hammer or a lever". A protocol is an abstract concept that can't be interacted with except via a service.
And anyway, people like services. People want services. And they're right to do so! Services are good and necessary. We just need to avoid using services that become corrupted by dark patterns, and to do that it will help if we can put guardrails in place to regulate services.
The example in the article about "moving your email from gmail" is nonsensical. Yes, you can have another email that can still (in theory) email all the same people. But if you don't actually have all your old emails, that will be pretty cold comfort. Not to mention that you may have difficulty convincing those people that you're the same person whose gmail got nuked. And that's assuming whatever new email provider you get is big enough that it won't be autoblocked by gmail, preventing all your old gmail friends from even seeing your emails.
Email being a protocol doesn't really help much here. What we need is to simply do regular "maintenance" of the tech world to ensure that individual providers do not become too big and powerful.
And anyway, people like services. People want services. And they're right to do so! Services are good and necessary. We just need to avoid using services that become corrupted by dark patterns, and to do that it will help if we can put guardrails in place to regulate services.
The example in the article about "moving your email from gmail" is nonsensical. Yes, you can have another email that can still (in theory) email all the same people. But if you don't actually have all your old emails, that will be pretty cold comfort. Not to mention that you may have difficulty convincing those people that you're the same person whose gmail got nuked. And that's assuming whatever new email provider you get is big enough that it won't be autoblocked by gmail, preventing all your old gmail friends from even seeing your emails.
Email being a protocol doesn't really help much here. What we need is to simply do regular "maintenance" of the tech world to ensure that individual providers do not become too big and powerful.