There is no established industry where something like "absence of regulation" exists. It is a hypothetical scenario because we don't even really know what that scenario looks like.

What we do have is not just regulation that acts as a moat, created by established players, to keep out smaller competitors, but also regulation cleverly crafted by peer established competitors who attack one or more aspects of their peer competitions business. Why do you think big companies find it difficult to compete with startups? Because they are not just bogged down by hierarchical management (which itself is a result of regulations) but also because they are spending resources fighting frivolous lawsuits, patents, and adhering to crazy regulations created and lobbied by competitors. Companies are consistently in a fight or collapse mode. Startups are insulted from all that until they have to go from survival mode to growth mode, which would mean they will have to start adhering to "regulations" and that would mean raising and infusing pointless capital just to hire people for useless positions or follow "procedures" so as to satisfy the regulator on paper, so that they can get the required certification needed by enterprise vendors to sell their product/service. With the eventual goal of either going public and becoming an established player (who will continue playing the regulatory game) or get absorbed by a bigger established player.

I wish someone could create simulations where there are absolutely no regulations and how the World would fare in such an environment.