All the amazon corporate values are derived from making profit. Two-pizza teams? More like "three slices isn't frugal", one or two should be enough for you.

One may follow the other, but not vice versus.

It's a pretty strong argument to say that Microsoft under Gates was technically obsessed, but that really faltered under Balmer.

Microsoft continued to win profits, but they made major strategic missteps that cost the revenue.

Amazon feels like it's going down the same path: empowering the tree-gazers without remembering that the forest also matters.

You can also “coast upwards” for quite awhile - as an example we now pay Microsoft less than we were for periodic upgrades to Office for the entire Microsoft 365 suite (including email hosting, etc) but all the machines are now Macs. They make more from us in one way, but less in total dollars.

Exactly. I can't imagine some accountant hasn't come up with a way to quantify this.

{Revenue attributable to previous R&D} (aka coast) vs {Revenue attributable to current R&D} (aka acceleration)