> removing all the peasants from the market so that the big dogs can have it to themselves.
Bingo! Wall St wants a monopoly on ALL your retirement funds. Your typical employer 401k plan offers only mutual funds run by Wall St. No investing in alternate assets such as real estate or crypto. The big boys get their cut AND make sure you are not crowding the field in lucrative investments.
Hollywood, the recording companies, RIAA / MPAA are all intermediaries between the artists who need the funding to create video and music content and the consumers who crave that content.
What we needed is a YCombinator for artists. Invest in each artist like he/she was a startup, then take losses on the flops, win big on the successes. Everything is in place for significant disruption: the artists are upset about low royalties and the consumers are upset about draconian copyright enforcement -- should be easy to offer more favorable terms to both parties.
Sounds like you are already doing most of the CTO work and virtually getting recognized as such. Step up and claim the CTO position.