"a zillion internet options that could meet our needs other than Comcast"

Say what now? Any kind of fiber is exactly the kind of thing that forms a natural monopoly. And the through-the-air (satellite and cell) are notoriously expensive and vulnerable to weather.

My view is that anyone with more than one wired broadband provider is lucky.

And my experience is that cable companies are *slightly* less evil than telephone companies. For perspective, our local phone company was more user-hostile than *the IRS*.