[api]

"is now self-reinforcing and runs on its own sort of cargo-cult momentum"

Loads and loads of stuff in business runs on cargo cultism.

It is very, very hard to say what precisely causes businesses to be successful or to fail. Correlation does not equal causation, etc. As a result, you have lots of "fewer pirates, higher global temperatures" type conclusions being drawn.

The discriminatory motives you cite factor into it -- correlations get promoted to causation when doing so will reinforce one's worldview or otherwise lead to a desired outcome. Sometimes this is subconscious.

Real heavy cargo cultism kicks in when someone with "juice" (a "thought leader" -- gag) draws such a conclusion and codifies it, or when a sufficiently large number of people independently do so and a herd mentality kicks in.