>Because the customer wasn't the user - it was their boss and shareholders. It was all done to make someone else think 'woah, they are following the trend!'.

I'm seeing this again and again. Customers as users seems like the last concern, if it is a concern at all. Adherence to the narrative du jour, fundraising from investors and hyping the useless product up to dump on retail are the primary concerns.

Vaporware or a useless, unlaunched product are advantageous here. Actual users might report how underwhelming or useless it is. Sky high development costs are touted as wins.