> To me, the far more insidious problem is what happens when Flock needs to keep showing growth?

To me, this was always the armored gauntlet underneath the velvet glove of any private entity with strong technical locks, Apple included.

The best you can reliably say about any private entity is that they're treating their users well at the moment.

Ultimately, profit always trumps user alignment.

Smaller companies are far less likely to, as their owner is happy with their profit and actually likes running the company.

One a company goes public though, or has significant external input (VC etc), things start on the slippery slope.