What is your definition of excellence? If excellence is defined as quality, then the free market always delivers the highest quality.
If you are headed to the beach, a plastic 32oz covered soda with a straw is far superior to an 8oz Waterford crystal glass full of fine champagne, even at the same price.
The proliferation of hard cider was mainly an issue of preserving the apple crop. Once that changed, many people preferred beer that they could afford to cider that they could not.
The market’s goal is to get the highest distribution, minimize costs, and thus maximize profits.
It can be (and often is) computed using a mathematical models called linear algebra.
“Excellence” may enter the equation, but mostly as a factor that if you make something that’s junk, nobody will buy it, if you boost the quality a bit, you’ll sell a bazillion units.
It could literally be said that free market theory only begrudgingly tolerates excellence, and if they could totally ignore excellence/quality and still make a profit, they would happily do so!