So what companies are now the Google of 20(?) years ago?
Where they hire strong engineering&product people who want to do beneficial things, and pay and treat them very well, they can afford to do some things well, and there's not a "metagame" of promotion-seeking and org-chart climbing?
There are no companies that are the “Google” of 20 years ago. Apple comes close in some ways, but it’s not a “young” version of Google, obviously.
Google is the internet, and most of its ads. Apple more or less is consumer tech. That is to say, they are the market makers and they decide what these market’s “truth” is.
There aren’t that many companies with that much leverage over that big of a market.
Where they hire strong engineering&product people who want to do beneficial things, and pay and treat them very well, they can afford to do some things well, and there's not a "metagame" of promotion-seeking and org-chart climbing?