>>”Over a hundred years ago the ultra superior ICE powered car crushed the steam and EV competition and both of those exotics were dead by the time WWI started.”<<
And they didn’t need the govt to ban steam or EV to win the competition.
[Not to mention the utter impossibility of viable steam or EV airplanes, which were in common use in ICE form by WW1 / 1914. And EV airplanes are STILL not viable today, due to weight/energy density.]