This is becoming a bit of an epidemic. Not every attack or exploit (and especially not a social engineering one) needs a name out of Metal Gear or a website.
Why would demand imply costs will be reduced? If you're making an economies of scale argument, there's plenty scale right now, and costs don't seem to be trending down.
Well, sure. Maybe you're the kid in the article who opened Xcode and Blender and Final Cut, but it didn't click for you. Of course not everything is for everyone, but it doesn't prove exploring the limits like that is a bad thing.
Why do you think they're fewer and farther between? It's almost certainly at least partially because of Chromebooks and the save-the-user-from-themself design philosophy.
So what's the alternative? Should we go back to reading encyclopedias from the 2010s? I ask this because the need for information hasn't decreased for human beings, just because the capability to produce slop has suddenly increased.
Why do companies even do this? It's not like they were prevented from being evil until they removed the line in their mission statement. Arguably being evil is a worse sin than breaking the terms of your missions statement
Worth noting that this is the thesis of Seeing Red: A study in consciousness. I think you will find it a good read, even if I disagreed with some of the ideas.