I don't think Google is doing anything evil, you just have to play their game correctly, and you win!

You don't have to pay dearly for your page rank if your site is good enough, if you're paying $5k or more, you're seriously not doing so well! If your page rank matter that much to you though, I guess it's worth it? I don't really pay attention to page rank anymore, it's sooo over rated.

Even if they do take over their competition, isn't it for the best? All the businesses that Google takes over end up doing very well, maybe even better than they were before Google acquired them