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Commissions are transparently too high. Realtors used to provide a very valuable service in finding houses. The internet has made listings available and searchable to all. Commissions should have come down to reflect the devaluing of that service.

This is the problem that realtors in general need to address if you think you're paying them for showing you houses. That might have been the case 20 years ago but that's not why you're paying what you're paying today. The money is earned in the negotiation and contracting. What you might not know is that the way these contracts are written can have a massive impact on both sides bottom line. I know, I know...copy/paste and all that...but it's simply not true for the majority of transactions. You can believe whatever you would like about this, but it can cost either side or both sides a lot of money not just in the offer/acceptance, but in the negotiation of the repairs. I've already said it above, but the vast majority of buyers and sellers have no idea how the process works and the pitfall involved.

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Will be interesting to see how the class action case plays out. The data is pretty compelling that listings with lower broker fees sit longer on the market, suggesting a level of industry wide collusion.

You can't have it both ways, you said in the first paragraph that the buyer was driving the decision on which properties they would like to see because the internet has made listings available and searchable to all. Can the agent steer them away from that property? Possibly. The number of times that happens is not zero...but it's a waste of time for agents to steer customers away from potential properties. Maybe shitting realtors that do 5 transactions a year could afford to do this, but the good ones don't have time to waste on nonsense like that. The name of the game is volume. Buyers are picky and you would never want to artificially steer a client away from a property. The more houses you get under contract the more money they make.