[netcan]

To take a contradicting pov... I think this sort of expectation/ideal has done us more harm than helped.

As advocates, companies are fickle and unreliable.

Presenting as advocates, companies always stress how aligned their interests are with customers'. We'll, that's true until it isn't. Once it isn't, it flips.

That's useless. Better to keep in mind that companies aren't your advocates. They're your salesman.

[Dracophoenix]

The principle-agent problem is not just limited to companies. Everything you've written applies to people in general. Advocacy in and and of itself is a fickle enterprise.

[staticassertion]

I agree that relying on companies to be advocates out of good will is not a good strategy.

[netcan]

Yes, but I also think that betting on aligned interests isn't great either... beyond the short term.

A Google, FB or Tesla just isn't structurally built for that.