I imagine there are lots of folks here who could answer this question. I like to assume that no individual engineer/developer/product manager is so unscrupulous as to make this sort of kafkaesque nightmare into a reality, but somewhere along the line from concept to implementation, some individual needs to demand, create or at least suggest such hostility to the user. My question is, how does this usually go? Is it a vague implicit target set by management that can only be achieved by abusing the user, giving both the engineers and managers a plausible deniability? "I'm just following orders". Or are there folks during the development phase suggesting and promoting these awful "features"? I'm guessing the answer will be unsatisfying to me, that no individual or group of individuals is really responsible, and it's just the incentive structure of the system that's emerged over time. Which just begs the deeper, but more complicated question, how did we get here?
The same technology used to foist madness upon someone is also used to insulate the creator from feedback. Its a double edge sword.
Virtually every touchpoint of society is being turned into this awful dynamic as its unregulated. All actors with power take their playbook from a familiar guy in a turtleneck on stage pointing to his users and saying " youre holding it wrong". As if every one participating in this "experiment" is indeed a willing "user"
