"I can't believe that Google, Shopify, Coinbase, everyone, really believed that this was the new reality going forward."
They didn't. They knew it wouldn't last. But what they had to do was stay competitive and/or meet demand by scaling up while they could. Now they have a larger pool of talent and can cut people/programs who are too expensive or are under performing.
Yeah, but this sort of thing is common in many industries. The people in power explain things in a political way in the name of communicating with laypeople to avoid bad reactions. This can be CEOs, politicians, doctors, police, developers, etc.
They didn't. They knew it wouldn't last. But what they had to do was stay competitive and/or meet demand by scaling up while they could. Now they have a larger pool of talent and can cut people/programs who are too expensive or are under performing.