Varoufakis was doing the hyperbole by saying "work for free" when he knows that people get some value. We can nit-pick the hyperbole, but the gist is still a fine enough point about the value being mainly from the users and extracted for profit by the platforms.

> Arguably, the current best economic theory basically says that because exchange takes place assuming users are rational enough, the exchanged value is identical.

I'll take that argument. If that's the best economic theory, it just validates my assertion that the field of economics is mostly a farce.

That "theory" is nothing but a say-so assertion that doesn't even try to look for evidence. It's unfalsifiable BS.

Some platforms provide great value. But the world is full of cases of middle-men and gatekeepers that have worked their way into that position and are little more than extractive. They might as well not exist. The reason people choose to go through them is for the value they get from the end exchange, not because they prefer to go through the middle-man. It all depends on the particular cases. The phenomenon of rent-seeking middle-men is not some myth.