> First people claimed that the free market will always give the consumer what they want.

Enshittification does give consumers what they want: free stuff. People will deny it up and down and claim they would pay for non-enshittified Facebook, for example. But how many people actually would pay a subscription to use a Facebook style service? Enough to build sustain a company of Meta's size? Probably not. How many people pay for Kagi?

>Enshittification does give consumers what they want: free stuff

Nope. Enshittifition happens to paid stuff just as well, including stuff you pay more (including when inflation adjusted) from what you paid before.

It's about futher increasing the profit margins, whether it's a paid product or not, not about affording to give something for free.