> That's a cynical take

One that you apparently agree with, given the rest of your comment.

> you need to pivot until you actually create a solution to a problem that people will pay for.

In other words: You don’t care about the problem, you care about the profit from selling a solution.

If a startup is “created to solve a problem” and then pivots to solve a different problem because the first one wasn’t profitable, that means profit was the priority, not solving the problem.