The Catholic Church (CC) and the VLOPs have the same basic dysfunction - errors of scale. The CC used beyond-human scale to exert power over and control of massively large numbers of humans, by violence (mental and/or physical) whenever it served the CC's ends. VLOPs use beyond-human scale to monetize the online activities of massively large numbers of humans via capture on, and then 'enshittification' of, their proprietary platforms.
In both cases, the scale is essential to the control strategy. Without that scale, the medieval bishop is just another traveler, and will be received (or not) according to the customs and cultures of the locales he passes through. Without that scale, VLOPs are not "VL" any more, and cannot leverage functional monopolies to extract revenue.
The CC wanted to control the beliefs and behaviors of everyone. Luther wanted different options for his beliefs and behaviors than what the CC offered - he wanted to have a different conversation, with a different intent and different outcomes. Musk likewise wanted to control the beliefs and behaviors of everyone on Xitter. There wasn't just one Luther in this case, but obviously plenty of people wanted different options and conversations than what Xitter had to offer.
In all these cases - Xitter, any of the VLOPs, the CC, and our dominant culture in general - the scale is problematic because it imposes domination by a tiny, unrepresentative handful of humans.
Side note re this: "Even if you claimed to reject this system (and many did, loudly and often), you were still playing the game." Not necessarily. There is also the option of ignoring them.