It's not about being profitable. They could even maybe launch it below cost and that might help people even if it costs them. The parent talked about marketing. And people using something and benefitting from it, and then recommending to others is probably one of the best forms of it.

The optics are bad if you try to profit unreasonably. Launching something to help people become more productive, and making reasonable money out of it doesn't have bad optics.

There are plenty of firms not terribly worried about the optics right now.

I don't mind naming one particularly gross one - Knightscope is busy spamming about how "Security robots are immune from disease and work 24/7". I'm sure they practiced defensive patter about resilience until they could say it without smirking.