Kindness is a good quality and one we should all strive to display especially in the most difficult times. However, the level of kindness one should expect in an academically or commercially competitive context depends on the role that one is playing. It is not always appropriate for a CEO, for example, to be kinder than he or she is smart as a static property. If we are stack ranking on raw ability, don't expect to come out at or even close to the top with consistency or at all. That's life. It is not unkind.
I think that the current "everyone's walking on eggshells" moment in tech is a direct consequence of the "no assholes rule" we saw become the HR mantra over the past decade-ish.
Very few people would opt to work with someone who is disrespectful and/or berating people -- causing high stress and a psychologically unsafe environment. However, no one wants to work with highly passive-aggressive people who abuse social conventions to avoid being challenged either. Many of the people who view any form of perceived aggression (often in the form of merit based competition) as unkindness simply desire to be #1, and don't want to compete with anyone to earn it.
Sometimes what appears to be kindness is anything but -- and often what appears to be unkindness is just someone doing their job. For me personally, when I'm on the clock, generally all I care about is the work-product. I do want to make great memories with people -- particularly of shared achievement. But the work product comes first and I believe that is an important way to operate if you want to do great things -- especially hard things. If you are in a role where you're just cruising -- doing what you do best with relative ease, this post is not about you. I fully believe HR should create a cocoon around you and protect your mental peace. Accountants, lawyers, jr-sr devs, etc do not usually need to be pushed in the same way that elite tech product ICs do. Sorry I said elite. Don't burn me at the stake please.
Let's be kind to each other, but let's not forget to push others and also develop a thick enough skin to be pushed by others if we are going to call ourselves competitive innovators.
To continue to outdo ourselves as the human race, we need all types of people -- but most of all, we need the smartest people we can find.