I *know* those people, the old blogger mafia who started the CMSes, social media services, and publishing platforms where I find myself trapped. I considered them friends (I still consider most of them friends), and I knew them well enough to believe that they really cared about their users.
They *did* care about their users. They just cared about other stuff, too, and, when push came to shove, they chose the worsen their services as the lesser of two evils.
3/