I think if the average person was made aware of the hidden costs in free services, and alternatives to them, that far less people would pick the free services. Imagine browsers were forced to present multiple default search engine options with a list of what data they collect and their price point. It might look something like this:
Google
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Data collected: All of it.
Uses it for: Whatever they want. Advertising, sells to your insurance company, sells to the government, trains AI models.
Price: Free
Kagi
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Data collected: Your signup email
Uses it for: Giving it to the government if legally mandated
Price: $10/mo
I think a large double digit percentage of average people (in countries where $10/mo is cheap at least) would not choose Google. Maybe I'm being too optimistic though.