I don't think capitalism ruined the internet (it built it in the first place, along with state-funding via universities and R&D centers of course, but it's all in a capitalist country so it's effectively capitalist). I think a lot of the most public-facing stuff that gets the most funding is obviously rent-seeking and ad-tech and other crappy products.

But the infrastructure of the internet works decently well. And you can use the internet in all sorts of cool ways. But getting lots of people to adopt the same software so they can communicate is the hard part. Easier to do if you have lots of money to spend on advertising.

You can even build your own "internet" with all the same software and tools as the current one if you want. With your own hardware. Or as a virtual network on top of the existing internet.

Just because the biggest and fanciest products aren't great doesn't mean the whole thing is rotten.

It's been remarkably successful at replacing the global telephone network technology. Phone calls now run over the internet (as far as I know).