Yes you can stretch anything to fit a narrative. Amazon runs the platform that sells everything so they shouldn’t be allowed to buy anything.
I think there’s a certain point where executives run out of ideas but have to be doing something. Then you have investment bankers and advisors pushing these ideas and copycatting each other for that sweet, sweet commission payday.
And it’s not so much that these are great ideas, it’s can they sound okay enough to get that payday before everyone realizes it was all a stupid waste of time five years later. That is, after the acquired company gets its souls sucked out, the talent leaves, and the acquirer discards the husk at a discount.
This is a self-correcting phenomenon.
The issue isn't Amazon buying something. The issue is Amazon buying something to force them to use their services hence circumventing competition.
EA may previously have used GCP to host their services because they provide a better service and are cheaper. This forces AWS to do better to compete against GCP and the end-consumer purchasing the game will pay less.