I view a principle as being a belief held that one will hold the line on, even if to do so would be potentially costly. A principle isn't necessarily popular or just.

Optimizing for traffic, revenue, or whatever else is certainly a strategy but I don't think it's a principle in the sense of someone or some people having principles.

And I would add that the effective output of such a strategy, if it were the behavior of an individual, would probably be described as sociopathic.