Amazon's beauty contest did seem completely counterintuitive to me. People with skin in the game are always in the know of things. Even if Amazon had not massively advertised its move cities and states would have worked hard to bring them to their shores. I did not understand why ordinary public had to be drawn into it.

Your average joe is always going to oppose a disruption in his otherwise mundane and lazy life.

Apple's strategy is much smarter let the cities secretly do a peacock dance, cut some real under the table secret tax deals and move somewhere else.