> But "shareholders expect infinite growth forever" directly contradicts "short-term gain prioritized over long-term growth"?
But it doesn't?
Shareholders expect companies to make whatever decisions are necessary to maximize short term profits, expect those profits to be infinite, and expect this to happen every quarter, every year, in perpetuity.
The part that's contradictory and that you omitted was "short-term gain prioritized over long-term growth". While it's theoretically possible for the two to coexist, the way it's presented is as one-or-the-other proposition, which is where the contradiction comes from. If it wasn't one-or-the-other, people wouldn't getting mad over it.
But it doesn't?
Shareholders expect companies to make whatever decisions are necessary to maximize short term profits, expect those profits to be infinite, and expect this to happen every quarter, every year, in perpetuity.