Free markets is great if its done with honer and morales, unfortunately you let free markets loose with no structure you get what the country experienced in the golden age of industrialization. Big money people making big money at the cost of lives and the environment. Not that this will get that drastic but will hurt the integrity of the sport. JMO. By the way I am a Republican.
Everything in life is better when done with honor and integrity. Regulation doesn't do this. You can't regulate ethics.
Can corrupt people abuse free/open markets - yes. Can they manipulate, bribe, influence politicians and regulators in government agencies - yes.
There are an abundance of cases where primarily big companies over the last 100 years have used the government apparatus to stifle competition and capture more of the market. When the government is less involved in picking the winners (either because they have been influenced or they believe the common person is too dumb to make good decisions for themselves) we have mostly better outcomes.
There are two necessities for free markets to work well.
1. Individual responsibility to research, weigh the pro's/con's, apply critical thinking and accept that sometimes you will make wrong decisions that you just have to accept
2. Free and independent speech by both the press and people. Will people lie and tell half-truths - YES. That's why it's important to protect all speech and not censor. The minute you put all your
faith in one source and it is the only voice deemed trustworthy, it can be captured/manipulated/influenced by people with power.