The consumer web as we know it is around 30 years old, but of course its origins stretch back many years before. In those original days of the web, the infrastructure of how content was distributed and accessed was fairly de-centralized. If I had something to share, I'd put it in a digital location I owned/controlled, and you were invited to get that information directly. Nobody could tell me what I should and shouldn't create and share, and nobody could prevent your access if you wanted to see it.
But over the decades, this infrastructure has consolidated into ever more complex, and ever more expensive, centralized cloud providers. The "server-client" model is so ubiquitous now that it's hard for nearly anyone to imagine a web that could work in any other way than with "Big Cloud". While the centralization of the web has offered numerous scalability (and efficiency) benefits for web developers and web adminstrators, it has come with a vast increase in cost. And no I'm not real