HTTPS is definitely not a major reason the web turned corporate. It has its problems for sure though.

Look at Gemini if you want an example of a decent web ecosystem that has HTTPS as a requirement for the protocol.

Gemini benefits from two things that the web has lost:

• small size: just like the web was once small, Gemini is still too small for any copos to consider it as an option to push their content or services although I believe there has been some small examples of this being tried.
• simple browser spec: Gemini benefits from having a number of browsers, none of which implement anything as interactive or insecure as JS(mime types other than gem text tend to be opened by other applications) and no one browser is influencing the spec for their own goals. This means all Gemini content is static once loaded by the client. No injected ads, no scraping of data and no hijacking of the tech by private companies.