Heh, this is one of the dark secrets of how they make their money: Even when people already know they are looking for you, you have to pay to "advertise" to them.

Google do evil?

Why can’t you rank? I had no trouble getting ranked if I did the search console stuff and I had a unique name (which I checked before picking a name). Or do you just mean that your organic result is below the paid results?

What’s more likely, someone searching for your small business and some other cash rich business buying the ad space and stealing your customer.

Or a small business buying the keyword for a large competitor and stealing their business?

As a small business,I would prefer the world in which I can bid on my larger competitors key words than not be allowed. How many small web apps are basically wrappers with a better UX on top of standard AWS services?

Try working on your quality score, and definitely add negative keywords for anything that might be confused with your brand name. Keep your brand keyword ad groups separate from any other keywords, and break out by match type. Brand keywords should be your cheapest traffic. Get professional help if you can.

Because your competitors are paying up to $5-10 per click for your brand name.