Personally, I think it's somewhere in between. Yes, some degree of "actually make things people want" is an essential component of a business...but I think the amount of "required evil" is usually overblown.
If markets were so ruthlessly competitive that no one could afford to be not-evil, no one would be making a profit. Every company would be barely surviving and profits would be minimal. The fact that profits exist - indeed, are much greater than they have been in the past - means that markets are NOT that ruthlessly competitive, at least not between actors with comparable access to capital resources.
Every dollar of profit a company makes is a dollar they could afford not to make and still survive. And given that the feasibility curve of profits <> level of evil is likely pretty convex, choosing not to make $1 likely pays out many dollars of not-being-evil externalities.