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A company is not just a group of people. At least, any publicly-traded company has a legal obligation to it's shareholders. The job of the Board of Directors is to ensure that the company is performing as optimally as possible to earn as much as possible for the shareholders. Morals aren't a part of the equation, it's all exploiting the confines of the law.

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This is oft-stated, but not really true in a practical sense. If in 2018 parking lots are more profitable than manufacturing, will you see Apple go into the parking lot business?

There's a huge amount of wiggle room and discretion possible even within the obligations to share-holders.

While I understand your point, that is a massive overstatement. Apple doesn't go into the parking lot business because it isn't in their corporate charter[0], which outlines the companies' objectives, structure, and operations. If Apple decided they could benefit by building parking lots then they very well might as long as they could justify the expense.

[0] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corporatecharter.asp

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