The point was David posted let the market place decide. That doesn't always work. We never found out if AM stereo would have worked because of a lack of standard.
But that's the point; the FCC selected a standard in the early 80's, arguably too late for AM anyway. That standard was Magnavox. Once lawsuits started or were threatened, the Commission rightfully thought the juice wasn't worth the squeeze of fighting litigation over what amounted to a simple decision. Since the Commission didn't technically oppose any of the proposed standards, they let the marketplace, aka potential vendors, fight to the death.
It's a different situation to what David was referring to. A ridiculous and benign media footnote like AM stereo can't compare with airlines or modern cyber security.
Where would FM be without a stereo standard?
The FM stereo standard was chosen in the late 50s. If an AM stereo standard had been chosen around the same timeframe, AM may have kept music longer, but there are still enough negatives with AM as a band that likely wouldn't have stopped the ultimate listener migration to superior FM.
Would the public be served if there were multiple HD systems that didn't work with each other.
There were several versions and large companies all working on IBOC modulation methods starting back in the late 70s. That included companies like AT&T. The Ubiquity method chosen was a combination of several after the original organizations bailed out, or sold out. Ultimately HD was a marketplace decision going in and what was left in the end was just approved by the Commission, except for DMR, which didn't try very hard in the States. Completely different situation than ridiculous AM stereo.
IMHO You have to have rules or technology standards before you can have "a level playing field".
That's the reverse of what happens. Industry develops a design and tests it with the idea of solving a problem that might make the company money. Potentially their competitors do the same with a different or similar design. In the case of radio or TV, the government body has rules of how a modulation complies with existing rules for occupied bandwidth and protecting the public interest. If accepted, rules are then put into place to accommodate the new technology to incorporate it alongside legacy rules/technology.
I feel in the case of AM stereo we never had a "playing field".
Mainly because it came about thirty years too late. Even then, it was still inferior to FM
Back to Cloudstrike: I saw on the news that Delta finally got their crew scheduling program going. They were booked at 85% + capacity most of this month. Supposedly last week was their busiest week. It will take time to find seats for the Delta Customers still sleeping in Atlanta airport.
Yes, Delta is going to take a beating over their slow ramp-back-up. I get it, once they get the database back they've got to reposition a lot of aircraft and crews. It's just that their competitors were able to recover so much quicker.
Back before airline deregulation, I have had a couple of flight cancellations. The airline sometimes would get you a seat on another airline.
Having your flight canceled sucks for whatever reason. The airlines do their best while trying to keep their shareholders happy. They've got consumers over a barrel because they own certain routes. It's no longer a matter of being upset at an airline because of service or a flight being canceled that one could honestly claim they won't ever fly an airline again. If you want to be a passenger on a route and don't want to pay a ton extra, your other options are driving, bus, or potentially train. But even trains get canceled or crash.