Sellers compete for the "buy box", inflating prices through Amazon requirements. That seems fair enough, but why then are the "other sellers" never cheaper, at least in my experience? While the buy box might have the costs of shipping and FBA baked in, the other options don't yet they're universally a worse deal all in. More often than not they're the "gimmicky" types of deals where the base price is "less", but the shipping is absurd.

Conditions like "don't sell cheaper elsewhere" are gross across the board, but the fundamental point doesn't seem valid.