Because of the way the internet is, to use a fringe competitor you usually pay more to get less. (Satellite internet, home LTE providers).
Around here, Verizon and ATT recognize that their only competitor is Comcast (or other company on the list to be bought by comcast) so they set their prices slightly higher and rely on marketing to add perceived value for about the same service. It may not be explicit price fixing (though it probably is), but it's still not good for national economic health or security.
You're looking at the wrong markets. The fact that an individual customer can choose between AT&T and Comcast provides very little consolation to the likes of Netflix. There is no other provider that can supply Netflix with connectivity between their servers and their customers who subscribe to Comcast. Netflix can't switch those customers from Comcast to AT&T if AT&T provides better terms. Comcast has a monopoly.
The analogy to Apple is completely appropriate. The smartphone customers see plenty of competition but the app developers are at the mercy of Apple for access to customers with iPhones. The same would be true of Google if they prohibited competing app stores as Apple does.
But it only applies to markets where the vendors can and do try to leverage their market power into a related market. Pepsi can't demand a tithe from the makers of cups because it has no control over what cups its customers pour their Pepsi into. You don't have to sell on eBay to accept PayPal.
The common theme is that a company places itself into a position of trust. By inserting themselves as a gatekeeper for third party access to its primary market customers they are carving out a monopoly in the ancillary market(s), which is an affirmative act that creates a position of trust.
If not... Advertisement snippets on the google SRP are called out with a different background color and are not "organic" search results.
The claim that offering this spot to the highest bidder is 'organic' seems bizarre at best.
...... apparently that last sentence is no longer true. No idea when that happened. However, the ads are called out by a yellow button saying "Ad" before the link text.