It's also illustrative to look at the alternatives – e.g. prior to the internet catching on there were many competitors which had been privately funded but the desire to obtain short-term returns ultimately relegated things like CompuServe, GEnie, etc. to also-rans because the private funding model favors centralization and rent seeking over qualities like openness and independent innovation.

Absent something like the academic internet we'd no doubt have some of the abilities we now have but it'd almost certainly look like those older services or the pre-iPhone cellphone app market – costly, high barriers to entry and centralized designs.