I can 100% imagine tech companies doing all of those things you mention hating brokers for—not having virtual apartment layouts, not having the ability to choose your roommates, using dark patterns to try and bait and switch you into a crappier unit...
The difference isn't between brokers / tech companies, it's between a new market entrant (who is trying to convey a user-friendly atmosphere to attract userss/good press) vs an ossified market where brokers have no incentive to cater to renters, despite the fact that they're ostensibly working for them, since they're chosen exclusively by landlords.
Five years later, there's nothing preventing the tech companies from working in exactly the same way—the reality is that any company that's chosen exclusively by the landlord and not accountable to the tenants is going to face exactly the same set of incentives, since supply-side shortages dominate the urban housing market.
The difference isn't between brokers / tech companies, it's between a new market entrant (who is trying to convey a user-friendly atmosphere to attract userss/good press) vs an ossified market where brokers have no incentive to cater to renters, despite the fact that they're ostensibly working for them, since they're chosen exclusively by landlords.
Five years later, there's nothing preventing the tech companies from working in exactly the same way—the reality is that any company that's chosen exclusively by the landlord and not accountable to the tenants is going to face exactly the same set of incentives, since supply-side shortages dominate the urban housing market.