What is an example of something that is not self-regulated that was worked out well?
EU food industry works pretty well. Incidences of food-borne disease, contaminated food, etc are very rare, and you can generally trust the label says exactly what’s in the food with confidence.
The regulations themselves are very complex, change depending on new evidence, and include all sorts of rule changes for events that impact the food industry.
The Romania link is kinda misleading. That isn’t a big government problem: that’s a profit crushing laypeople problem. Both the communist Romanian government and the capitalist government that followed wanted to profit from many different mines even though it would destroy nearby villages.
Rosia Montana is still very controversial today. A different mine, but the same core reasoning and issues.