[hefeweizen]

The "bicycle of the mind" platform vs aggregator argument is a bit contrived: the author is conflating features built on top of platforms with the platform itself. Most of the examples listed (Google Photos auto-edit, Maps suggestions, Gmail compose) are typically features built on top of platforms that can be (and are) used without these features.

Instead, I would think of these tools as an electric bicycle of the mind (to borrow from the article): the purpose of the motor is to help you on steeper hills. It is inherently still a bicycle.

Maybe stop trying to shoe-horn multi-decade companies with thousands of employees into ill-fitting philosophical silos? I'm all for arguments for/against companies but retro-fitting them into narratives and then proclaiming A is better than B is disingenuous.