It is not. It's an illustration of the principle involved. The guy that sells you Bud, for profit, has every incentive to sell you more, and to do so everywhere and every time. He has to compete with all the other beer sellers on quality and cost, thus driving quality up and prices down. Pure benefit to consumer, and beer makers slaughter each other to give you the best product.
Everyone needs bread. Should the gov't create a bread monopoly such that the extremely poor would always have some protection against the eeeevil food companies that won't give a little bit of bread away free? I mean, we do that with power. Let's just pass a law creating a Department of Bread, then ban Allinson, Alvarado Street Bakery, Arnold, Ball Park, Beefsteak, Bimbo, Brownberry, EarthGrains, Entenmann's, Eureka! Baking Company, Francisco, Freihofer's, J.J. Nissen, Mrs. Baird's, Old Country, Oroweat, Sara Lee, Stroehmann's, Thomas', Tía Rosa, Weber's, Bost's Bread, Breddy, Dave's Killer Bread, Davidovich Bagels, Flowers Foods, Holsum Bread, King's Hawaiian, Lender's Bagels, Merita Breads, Mother's Pride, Nature's Pride, Pan Desuyo, Pepperidge Farm, Polarbröd, Rudi's Organic Bakery, Schwebel's Bakery, Sunbeam Bread, VitBe and Wonder Bread, and all the tens of thousands of other bakeries out there from selling anyone bread that wasn't provided by Federal Bread and Water Co. Think that's a smart plan? I mean everyone needs bread. It's not a luxury anymore, it's a necessity. Let's make goddamn sure those bread companies won't shut down people's bread supply after six months of not being paid for their bread.
There are any number of entities that are capable of selling you power right now, with no, or minor, changes to the last mile. Most, if not all, are forbidden by law from doing so or are bound by thousands of pages of regulation such that it isn't worth the effort.
Why *anyone* thinks that limiting to one the number of people that can provide you power somehow *helps* anyone or drives costs down and quality up is beyond me. It doesn't happen.