I agree with the post, but it is not just operating systems, and it has been going in the 'closed wall' direction since before WinXP.

We had programs like 'pidgin' that allowed chatting with different protocols, whereas now even I (a Linux nerd with 30 years IT experience) have no clue how to take a backup of my Whatsapp/Facetime/... conversations. Completely closed protocols are winning over open ones.

There is a similar process going on with websites; they used to be open and readable for everyone. Today I cannot access most pages that are sent to me via mail or that are linked in forums, unless I create an account and agree to share everything with 799 partners. Never mind that all links are now safelinks.protection.outlook.

Hardware, too. You used to be able to figure out what was going on with hardware with an oscilloscope. You could get the oscilloscope onto a pin of a chip. You could replace chips. Now all of that is far beyond most people's reach.