At least IBM learnt that lesson. One of the most frustrating things at my previous company was the enthusiasm to throw 50+% of engineering time at projects that even in the most optimistic projections would not bring in even 1% of the profits brought in by the main product. Said main product was very much in need of more care and could have been improved by a lot more than 1% with a doubling of work hours spent on it.
Improving the main product or exiting products is seen as "maintenance". Industry doesn't give bonus/RSUs/promotions for maintenance. It is always gonna be a shiny new project, which gets promotions/bonus/RSUS. After getting bonus/promotions, every one (from the director level down to the bottom) will move laterally to another org. Rinse and repeat, you can see the pattern across FAANG.
That may even be OK. If it really is maintenance, maybe outsourcing it or giving it to entry-level employees may be a reasonable strategy as opposed to trying to keep more senior folks involved, if there are genuinely no interesting new angles involved.
