I guess I wanted to empower them in whatever small way I could afford.
It would be nice if more did this rather than buy from the mainstream, mass-produced pool of misery.
But I don't completely agree. I agree partially. We are living some cyberpunk already, where corporations are becoming the new states and where virtual reality (not that optical VR tech) becomes important.
Maybe the punk is dead as it has passed the point of being in your face against the stream, for as you say, we are halfway there. A little more breakthrough in AI and VR/AR and things get weird very fast - especially with a handful of conglomerates only interested in extending profits calling the shots.