But for two: "How can a $150B+ company exist with this much disdain" -- Have you looked at Oracle lately?
I once got an email from an Oracle recruiter, and I did not waste the opportunity to tell him how I feel about Oracle.
Do not make the mistake of anthropomorphizing Oracle or Larry Ellison.
Also while teams have variances org culture is rarely so different. Toxic cultures , red tape bureaucracy, or how performance is evaluated is typically mostly global not localised.
That's isn't to say nobody should in such places, there are plenty of people who just want a paycheck and don't care where they work or what their work environment is like, these orgs are perfect for them.
If you are passionate about your work and environment, and compensation wise squeezing your current value immediately in cash is not your priority then most big orgs especially ones like Oracle are bad place for you
I used to say so many nevers, "I'll never work for X, fuck them!", etc. As I've gotten older, I regret this manner of thinking my young self did. Always better to keep an open mind while still sticking to your guns.
At the same time, don't ignore red flags!
I am more regretful I can no longer make those kinds of decision anymore, older you are there is more responsibility and you are forced into pragmatic approach to life and let go principles and ideologies you fought for and deeply believe in .
I don't love Photoshop's long startup times, huge RAM usage and non-native Mac UI, but I appreciate what it lets me do. And I'm not even, for example, a graphic designer working with other people who expect me to submit Adobe assets.
By the way, changing processes and software in corporations is very hard thing to do as there's so much management/staff/human/distribution issues on the way.
Affinity seems to have made some penetration by copying/innovating on an entire range of their products, but that's a huge up-front investment to grab a tiny piece of the pie.
This is really a job for antitrust, but modern antitrust is just a circa mid/early 20c legend we tell children so they aren't scared that capitalism could get out of control and eat them.