It's a metaphor. But so is "platforms". In some sense neither exists. What actually goes on is an incredibly complicated set of relationships between thousands

It's a metaphor. But so is "platforms". In some sense neither exists. What actually goes on is an incredibly complicated set of relationships between thousands of people. We don't have a useful specific vocabulary for that, so we have to resort to metaphor. But I believe the metaphor is a valid one, and it's grounded in the actual emotions of key people making these decisions.