Such schadenfreude and enmity are natural responses to people or entities which seem overconfident and braggadocios, or which play dirty, or which bully. Uber has created the perception that they are or do all of those things.
But hopefully the "if" condition of the previous paragraph evaluates to false. :)
It may be petty, as you say. Or it may not be. Regardless, it's sad that journalists today don't consistently go after all bad actors, if they're going to do this. Uber seems fairly inept and heavy-handed in managing their leadership brand, but many other companies have proven how simple it is to placate perception while behaving very destructively behind the scenes.
When you describe the consequences as an immunological response, I think of something organic, more of an unguided process, not driven by awareness of meta-factors.