> I legitimately don’t understand how companies get to this point

The people who start a company care deeply about the problem they're trying to solve.

The first N employees also care - they're willing to risk working for start-up because they can see the potential and want to help.

But then you hire, say, an accountant. The accountant doesn't care about your mission. You are just another client to them. You need someone to staff the phone or sweep the floors or design the logo or whatever. Why should they care? You're not paying them to care, they're not invested in the company nor its success, and they believe nothing they do for the company will change their personal fortunes.

Then, before you know it, you have a couple of floors filled with people who have no incentive to care.

It is incredibly difficult to run an organisation where everyone is mission driven.