Back when we were “living with” the AT&T monopoly we had the best telecommunication system in the world, upgrades to the infrastructure were constant, even in low population regions (which usually got the left overs from recently upgraded high population regions). Now that we have all these baby bells most of them don’t have the money for upgrades, most of fly over country is at least 15 years behind the curve and we have the worst telco system of the industrialized world.
Cable networks sell bundles to cable companies. 6 companies own the vast majority of the cable dial. They’re not going to stop selling that way. And that’s why cable companies sell to you that way.