A lot of companies had their true purpose of riding the VC wave and living off their money by dazzling them with ever-increasing numbers. They would never have

A lot of companies had their true purpose of riding the VC wave and living off their money by dazzling them with ever-increasing numbers. They would never have been profitable in a good day, let alone in the current storm. The VC wave is over, and so is "growth & engagement". Now the only way to survive is to actually make money from selling your product/service and saving that money instead of burning it on expanding the engineering playground where complexity was considered a feature.