I reason the style of thinking you describe comes from the 70s/80s when mergers and acquisitions started to take place more and more. It became worse in the 80s

I reason the style of thinking you describe comes from the 70s/80s when mergers and acquisitions started to take place more and more. It became worse in the 80s (the decade that gave birth to the predator's ball (look it up)). Corporate types don't see products. Neither do they see people. They see quarterly results. Product development takes a back seat, because that costs money. So, they just milk it while it lasts and then blame the next CEO. But you don't need to run a business like that. Sure, you can be a blood-thirsty profits vampire. Yet still make investments into product development that will allow you to have more blood to suck in the future. I'd say its a balance between profit/innovation, which Jobs became good at.