> The moment a company goes public they're legally required to make stupid, short-term decisions that are worse for everyone

Nope there's no legal requirement. Management is happy for you to believe there is because they get paid in stock.

The only legal requirement is to make decisions that are in the shareholders' interests, rather than the management's. That means short-term-bad, long-term-good decisions are actually strongly encouraged.

I think what it really means is that the public interest means nothing and companies will profit by any means necessary.