Information was always the moat for everything. We literally have spies who risk their lives to try to gain access to information.

Yes, during the 2000's there was the "mashup" fads. People creating companies around mashing data from one service to another. Like putting Craigslist listings on a Google Map.

And guess what, all those mashup companies didn't last a couple of years. Because they didn't have a direct access to data.

This is heavily context dependent... There are plenty of situations where everyone knows the relevant factors, it's who has possession of land, resources, people, etc.