"I don't mean to judge; I just genuinely wonder how these things are viewed by common Americans."
This is part of the reason why Libertarianism is such a popular thing in America. So much regulation is introduced ostensibly to protect the common people from unscrupulous and powerful companies but when regulations turn out so often to be protections for cartels and the like, people begin the doubt the utility of the government in that area. America, unlike some European countries, tends to have a lot more government take place at the local and state levels, and while this is a good thing as it allows people more direct control over their communities, it also leads to stuff like this when folks don't pay attention. (Which happens when folks are too distracted by national elections to pay attention to local politics.)
On the other hand, a lot of Americans don't mind these kinds of things as, as often as not, they are the beneficiaries of some kind of favoritism in regulation, or it doesn't directly affect them, which is why this stuff survives.
This is part of the reason why Libertarianism is such a popular thing in America. So much regulation is introduced ostensibly to protect the common people from unscrupulous and powerful companies but when regulations turn out so often to be protections for cartels and the like, people begin the doubt the utility of the government in that area. America, unlike some European countries, tends to have a lot more government take place at the local and state levels, and while this is a good thing as it allows people more direct control over their communities, it also leads to stuff like this when folks don't pay attention. (Which happens when folks are too distracted by national elections to pay attention to local politics.)
On the other hand, a lot of Americans don't mind these kinds of things as, as often as not, they are the beneficiaries of some kind of favoritism in regulation, or it doesn't directly affect them, which is why this stuff survives.