"Not really - I mean, if I run Toyota should I not be producing cars I can sell at a profit? And if my sales are falling, isn't that a bad thing?"

Yes to both. Maybe I'm misinterpreting the concept. "Steady" to me in this context means the same, thus financial shenanigans to make sure you don't report "excess" earnings in one period so you can have them in reserve for a future one where you have a slump.

"Regular" profits are ideal, but Toyota today is not a good example, it's a mature company in a country with a mature automobile industry. As a counter example, see the story sold to the investing community about Amazon, not that they would make a steady profit, but that they would become huge and then do something like that. Which they've delivered on (and I wouldn't judge them on anything in the COVID disruptive period 2020 to now).