[amjd]

Then what would you glamorize? I'd think that in a free-market economy revenue is a pretty good proxy for usefulness too in most cases.

[DrBoring]

I like to think of it this way:

Revenue != Usefulness (to the users of the app)

Revenue == Usefulness (to the recipient of the revenue)

Analogy to non-software biz:

1. CandyCo buys ChocolateCo

2. CandyCo changes ChocolateCo recipe to use less expensive ingredients, generating new revenue for CandyCo, but less tasty chocolates for ChocolateCo's long time customers.

3. The new revenue has disparate usefulness for the two interested parties.