>  if Google and Meta got the best people, what the hell did they do in the last ten years? 

Honestly, what have any of them done in the last 20 years? Forget AI for a minute[0]. A lot of stuff happened in the early 2000's but what since? I have a hard time thinking of anything post 2007 (iPhone). But what has been done since then other than some grifts? We made VR billionaires. We made bitcoin billionaires. We've now made AI billionaires. We've turned everything into a subscription, made everything a dark pattern, and everyone is just complaining how everything is broken.

Sure, these companies have made lots of money, but what have they done?

I actually do believe these companies have "the best people." I'm pretty sure they're just paid a lot less and having a difficult time advancing to staff engineer. Promoting people who are good at politics and being a yesman rather than a "does-good-work-man". For all our leetcoding, our "just make it work" mentality, and "we're going to do 10 interviews and take 3 months so that we can ensure we get the best people" I'm pretty sure we've done a really terrible job at it all. Maybe they are getting the best people, but then just putting them in handcuffs until they give up. Or maybe it's just all politics and no one actually cares about building a god damn product, and no, the stock does not count as a product and it is embarrassing that I even have to clarify this.

[0] While impressive it is still out if this will be profitable and if it'll be positive. It's unclear yet, unlike the other things. Read the rest of what I wrote...