[awillen]

That's not necessarily true - you can be honest and not give a shit.

Take OP's example of buying a table - the company they worked with really spent a lot of time understanding their needs and making something custom for them. An alternative would be to go to IKEA and buy a table. IKEA does not give a shit in the same way and will not spend a great deal of time learning about you and what you're going to use your table for to ensure you get something perfect.

There's absolutely nothing dishonest about that. It's not even to say that they don't care about the quality of their products. It just means they're not going to go the extra mile. Of course, it also means you're going to get a table for probably an order of magnitude less money. That's a perfectly reasonable tradeoff, and it's a good thing both types of businesses exist.