>This couldn’t be further from truth. Buybacks are the result of executive incentives to hit a certain stock valuation.

Why do you ignore the people who choose to sell their shares to the company?

Stock buybacks move cash from the company's coffers into the hands of selling shareholders, period. Whether it's good or bad to do so at any specific time is certainly debatable, but the idea that it "manipulates" the share price is wrong, both in theory and practice.