I think the issue here is more that interacting with certain companies or services is unavoidable. As an Android user I often will have to interact with iPhone users and the impact of their vendor lock-in techniques is that the experience of those interactions is worse on both sides.

I can't convince every person to stop using an iPhone, or even just just a different messaging app, most people can't even agree what to have for dinner...

So users that take it upon themselves to try and improve the experience by trying things like beeper or beeper mini are actually trying to help others maintain their choices and preferences without the degraded experience.

So sometimes a person voting with their dollars isn't enough, since it's others choices that still have an impact