> they have created a system of incentives that are inexorably leading to harmful outcomes
If the people inside are "smart, thoughtful, kind, well-intentioned people", they would have tried to work around the incentive, influence them, denounce them, or quit.
It rarely happened. Most of the time, the just take the money, and goes with the flow.
A long time ago, I worked in a startup full of smart, thoughtful, kind, well-intentioned people. Of course, there was also a CEO who was a ruthless manipulator and managed to make everyone believe that they were working for the greater good. In truth, in the course of lining his pockets, he was in the process of destroying several employees and former employees.
Getting past the illusion was hard.
Taking a stand against said CEO while nobody else was aware of the problem? Really, really hard.
Now, instead of a few dozen employees, Facebook has tens of thousands. I assume that all of them are subject to permanent propaganda, as in many tech companies, and that the semi-official word is that they are being misunderstood by the rest of the world, because of course they are doing the right thing but the problem is harder than people think (well, that last part is true, at least). I suspect that it's even harder to go against the flow.
If the people inside are "smart, thoughtful, kind, well-intentioned people", they would have tried to work around the incentive, influence them, denounce them, or quit.
It rarely happened. Most of the time, the just take the money, and goes with the flow.