You touched on some very good points. As you pointed out big business often lobbies for stricter controls on the market because they can bear the costs while small business cannot. Big business can pay the taxes, afford the licenses, and can afford to comply with burdensome regulations. The barriers to entry into some markets are so cumbersome and cost prohibitive that some people don't even bother trying.
I had an interesting experience of my own. Several years ago I went to work for a medical company. I had nowhere to sit on my first day at work. The logistics manager said they were bringing me a desk out of storage but they had to order a chair. I told the logistics manager that I could simply pick up one of those cheap, high-back leather chairs from Office Depot and then the company could reimburse me. They cost about $100. She said it wasn't allowed because the chair didn't comply with Cal OSHA ergonomic requirements. I asked her how much an OSHA-compliant chair costs. She said $500. The company had 200 employees at the time. Do the math.
How do that get that advantage?
Seems obvious enough to me that lobbyists and special interest groups seeking to buy access to government power in order to gain unfair competitive advantages would be non existent if politicians weren't putting government power up for sale in the first place. They sell the "little guys" snake oil while they sell access to government power to their cronies.