This Hacker News thread isn't useful at all. It's the same people that comment on every thread stating their opinions overconfidently. It's the same perpetually negative Wired article. These things would be the same no matter what is really going on, and so I can't use it to learn anything.
There's that section about how Meta executives got drunk on an airplane. And the only thing that happens is they sing karaoke. There's nothing inappropriate. They're a bunch of boring nerds.
E.g. I might be blocked by some bug I am working on, and have no idea that Jim encountered this 2 months ago and has it all worked out. Normally I wouldn't have thought to ask Jim because he's currently working on something else. So this quick meeting is a way to discover that somebody else has already solved the problem I'm working on.