Was Pinterest shady? No, not at all. Most employees were kind and genuine and trying to do the right thing. Was management and leadership all hyper corporate lizard people? Yes, absolutely. Was it a good company to work for as an engineer? I would say no.
The company constantly suffered from lack of quality technical leadership and as a result the lizard people were in control and the politics were of a company 10x at all times. Decisions were almost exclusively top down. Sound technical ideas were difficult to argue for because shady employees would lie and manipulate the lizard people. The lizard people only cared about self preservation and promotion.
I also think Ben and Evan were heavily influenced by their board (Ron Conway, et all) who saw a billion dollar company and wanted to not rock the boat until exit. It could have been so much more than a cash grab and yet I don’t feel like it ever was or ever will be.