I think this is something else. These plans are not about cutting moribund departments that produce nothing. These are plans to fire people who are currently p

I think this is something else. These plans are not about cutting moribund departments that produce nothing. These are plans to fire people who are currently performing well and delivering for the company absent any downturn. This is very different than cutting bloat in that these people are currently holding up their end of the bargain for employment. Personally I would also suggest that seeking gains that come 100% at the expense of a business partner is a real asshole move. HN also used to ridicule organizations that have no vision for future growth. From a business perspective the more scathing indictment of these executives is that they have no plan for capitalizing on AI. If a VC asked a startup what they would do with an extra X engineers or $Y in cloud credits, and the answer is "we would do the same things we are doing now" the VC would probably pass on the company. AI gives you twice the engineers. If your company doesn't have any plans to take advantage of this opportunity then it is already in decline.