Imagine you're in London. How you pick a restaurant for dinner? Do you simply walk into a restaurant or do you use Google too feed you a list of 'curated' venues? Because in the latter case both you and the restaurants (along with their owners, employees) are subject to FAANG's central planning. And that's exactly how people end up in tourist traps.
For some reason you seem to believe that the old-school solution of just walking into the neighborhood and picking something that looks good has completely disappeared. It is not the case and, I would argue, is still restaurants primary business.
People also consistently share advice/tips on restaurants to try, and that largely escapes tech control.
And even a well-reviewed/noted restaurant isn't immune to people's choices. As someone who has restaurant owner friends, I can assure you that tech companies have very little impact on the restaurant's success/survival.
https://laurenleek.substack.com/p/how-google-maps-quietly-al...