If that is codified and taught, then journalists can point to that in all cases (of which we are overrun). It's pathetic.
In this context (the idea of making this unethical), a brand is built on investor money (not profits) and then later profits are achieved by cashing out the brand value.
But I'm guessing you knew that and disagree. Care to be more forthright?
Well for one, every new business is initially built on investor money, not profits, and "cashing out" is in the eye of the beholder, so I'm not sure how you're going to get everyone to agree on where the line is.
Furthermore, I think cory (and many of the folks here who have fallen in love with the term) misunderstands why platforms decay. Facebook doesn't suck because it is trying to please business customers at the expense of its users. Facebook sucks because it is attempting to please 2B users all at once. Every new little feature or notification or ranking change is loved by millions of people and hated by millions more (and merely tolerated by the vast majority). If the former is greater than the latter, it gets shipped to production. Rinse and repeat for 10 years across a myriad of teams, and you get a muddled, confusing mess that has a wider audience but much worse experience for most. That is the root cause of the decay.