Comment by hschne

It's simplistic, but I think there's two ways you can approach building a product company.

Either you focus on creating a great product that customers love. As a consequence, you'll hopefully make some money.

Or you focus on making a truckload of money as quick as possible, and building a product is merely a means to an end.

As OP said, there's far too few companies choosing the first approach, and far too many choosing the second one.