Is this sarcasm?

It is well know that big corporations take good regulations and change them to make them:

1. Easier to bypass for themselves.

2. Create extra work for incumbents.

3. Convince the public that the problems are solved so no other action is needed.

In many industries goverment and corporations work together to create regulations bypassing the social movements that asked for the industry to be regulated and their actual problems. The end result are regulations that are extremely complex to add exceptions for anything that big corporations paid to change instead of regulations that protect citizens and encourage competition.

I think it is cynicism; at least, there’s an idea that once a company is dominant it should want regulation, as it’ll stifle competition (since the competition has less capacity for regulatory hoop-jumping, or the competition will have had less time to do regulatory capture).

I wouldn't think so. Regulatory capture is a pretty typical activity for a dominant company.

sama did just that a couple years ago