Meanwhile we have a lot of technology where its only incentive is not to be thermodynamically easier to an alternative, but to make someone money. Sometimes the technology is even less efficient than the alternative, but its perpetuated and expanded and iterated upon because it is so lucrative. I think once we hit this point with technology is when the singularity really kicked off. Not recently or in the future but potentially in the time of Ea-Nasir and his ingots.
A multitude of successful cryptocurrency rugpulls has shown that technology can indeed be ouroboric, with no actual social benefit.
I do get GP's broader argument, that every generation shakes its fist at the cloud, and we're no different (though this time, we do have a "cloud" to shake our fists at!)
However, your argument resonated with me. Growing up, I observed that newer tech was often superior (e.g. DOS --> Windows) and competing by delivering superior value to the end-user. Of late, it feels like companies are reading the financial tea-leaves and competing by delivering increasing gains to Wall Street.