The trouble is not with the ease of development but the centralization and ease of finding the restaurant.
Marketplaces provide a one-stop location for customers, instead of searching Google then scrolling and clicking through each site to then get a 404 or poor website.
If you created a simple website it would need a whole bunch of work to get it to rank, get it added to Maps, Yelp etc. A well known marketplace/s provides everything for a very low cost in the long run.
This is not true and the opposite is actually true when it comes to ease of listing.
There are many restaurants listed on Yelp and maps that are unclaimed. They are both incentived to get as many businesses on as possible. As soon as the owner cares a little bit there is a straight forward method for claiming the listing and then the owner can set their hours and own website.
I personally don't waste my time helping massive companies for free by adding the listings but many people still do.
I also don't put any worth into Yelp or Google reviews and hate generalized way menus are displayed and find the "poor" websites do a far better job at highlighting the restaurants offering. I always immediately click the website link on either to actually determine if I want to go. Maps and Yelp only are useful for a localized search of places directly around me.
Marketplaces provide a one-stop location for customers, instead of searching Google then scrolling and clicking through each site to then get a 404 or poor website.
If you created a simple website it would need a whole bunch of work to get it to rank, get it added to Maps, Yelp etc. A well known marketplace/s provides everything for a very low cost in the long run.