Obviously it's better for you to take money from shareholders if you don't ever give it back. That's not a foundation for a long term stable ecosystem.
"improving a product" isn't "cannibalizing". Cannibalizing means destroying your profitable product to bet on something different that might not make money even if it succeeds, the how Linux or the growth of ther web cannibalizing Windows OS sales.
I'd you think the purpose of economics is to make the most money and not the most utility for human society, you say you are in the wrong economic model.
Tumors are the best growing parts of a body; that doesn't mean cancer is the ideal form of life
It's a bit strange that, Buffett, who made billions on technical analysis of businesses, makes decisions based on who can manipulate him with Dale Carnegey (who changed his named to Carnegie to make people like him) tricks.
Perhaps it's a meta thing, where Buffet only works with manipulators because he knows they need to manipulate others to succeed.