"Embracing and extending" is not a destructive thing in itself. What makes it destructive is when the extensions are difficult for others to implement, because

"Embracing and extending" is not a destructive thing in itself. What makes it destructive is when the extensions are difficult for others to implement, because they are coupled to some proprietary thing that can't be reproduced. In Microsoft's case, that was Windows. Is Apple technologically locking authors into their platform? Will books not be published elsewhere because the content can't be migrated to another app? But what matters in the end is the "extinguish" part, and that can happen without the first two steps. Sometimes a technology pushes competing technologies out of existence, for a variety of reasons, such as being better. Embracing and extending just greases the gears.