Those are certainly some... examples. Not things I would hold up as a sign that PE is a good thing since all those businesses look like they are perpetually on the edge of collapse around my area. Dilapidated, mostly empty parking lots, poor service from understaffing. I think we would all be better off if those businesses died and left room for others to replace them.
Who’s preventing a competing coffee shop or burger restaurant from opening? If your area is such a prime business market, but these businesses aren’t capitalizing on it, one of your assumptions may be wrong.
The fact that they are still there in business, even if it is low and crappy business, will still hold onto some customers. And long established business has advantages that a new business can't buy. If there isn't enough traffic for two burger joints, it can become a standoff of both bleeding money until one of them fails, and the new business likely doesn't have the same credit line.
