Much, if not all, of what you say in this post is absolutely true. The difference, in my view, and what tends to make me react negatively, is making a blanket statement that all business is driven by profit. The picture you paint in this comment if far more balanced that that because you cover specific types of businesses and make distinctions. I think you understand that, just like people are different, businesses are different.
Many decades ago I bought a surface mount assembly line (equipment) from this guy who made a living selling high quality electronics manufacturing equipment. He had just downsized from an operation with 50 employees an a huge warehouse to buying a house and smaller warehouse in the mountains (Big Bear, if you happen to know SoCal) and was very happy. His goal was to sell one or two systems per quarter and that was enough. He, at some point, decided a lifestyle business was what he needed at that stage in life. He told me that at that scale the focus on making enough profit to keep the organization going was so stressful that, after a couple of decades of that he had to simplify his life. So, yes, 50 people lost their jobs because he decided he was done focusing on profit at that scale and wanted to simplify his life.
I was a young entrepreneur and he was much older, so I guess he felt compelled to give me advice. One of the things he said that stuck in my head was "A business is like a living breathing organism with a mind of its own. You think you are in control. You are not. It tells you what you are going to do each and every day when you come to work. You can point in a general direction, but it is in control."
He went on to explain that, at nearly every scale, a focus on profit is necessary in order to achieve growth, maintain it, remain competitive and, at some point, keep everyone employed. I have personally experienced this to be true in the decades that followed that conversation.
From the outside it might seem like all someone focuses on is profits. What few people do is engage in a root cause analysis process in order to understand why --objectively-- someone might have to do this.
A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend of mine who works for a manufacturing company in Arizona. In this conversation he made a comment about how annoying it was that the COO was always pounding the table to save costs on all items and designs all the time. He thought the guy was somewhere between insane and just plain greedy to make his bonus on the backs of everyone else.
I said, OK, this will be fun. It's a small company (about 20 people) in a well defined market. Let's analyze it.
We got on a zoom call, I fired-up Excel and we developed a quick financial model for this company over the next 45 minutes or so. That's when he finally realized this guy wasn't being greedy at all. He saw things like, the impact of adding dollars to the cost of goods could mean not being able to support R&D, or not being able to hire people and grow, having to lay people off, etc.
We modeled real-world events to the extent possible in such a simple analysis. For example, container shipping from China in the last couple of years, went from $2000 to $20000 or more (round numbers). The cost of fuel doubled. Many product categories went up as much as 25% due to international trade tariffs. These inputs chain-reaction through the entire supply chain and affect the costs of other products. The company that makes packaging, boxes, for you is paying more for everything, so your packaging becomes more expensive. Etc. If your profit is razor thin you cannot survive such events.
In short, while from the outside focusing on profit might look like the entire purpose of the enterprise. The reality is that, if you want to deliver good products or services, remain competitive, grow, keep people employed, etc. you are forced to maximize profit to the extent possible or none of that can happen.
From the outside it looks like the motivation is inverted: Profit as the driver. From the inside it is exactly the opposite: If I want to make great products and remain viable for a long time, I have no choice but to deliver great products but also maximize profit. If I don't the business will eventually fail.
Are there people who only care about money? Of course. Then again, you could say that about every single person with a 401K and a Roth IRA. We all maximize for profit. Not because profit is our overriding objective. Profit is necessary in order to be able to realize our actual objectives.
BTW, I have about ten years of experience in the media industry. I was CTO at a startup run by a guy who had been the president of Universal Pictures for a dozen years or so. The best way I can describe it is: A combination of YouTube and Netflix. The startup was way too early. Streaming costs were simply unreasonable. The business model simply did not work. And, yes, this guy ran the thing purely on ego...right into the ground. I did meet and work with some of the most famous stars, directors and other folks in Hollywood though. It was a ride, that's for sure.