I try not to be cynical, but I honestly don't think they even care about that with all things being equal.
I'm talking about the 90+% of people, not the people we all probably know. It's not about elitism either, it's just human nature. People care about the ends, not the means.
Even with all things being equal, if you offer X covered in shinies, you will win over someone just offering X. Companies like Meta are very good at covering their products with shinies, and governments are not.
Hmm, well I don't know. Not everyone like the same kind of shiny stuff. And even if you like some kind of shiny, sometime a huge load of it is just too much of it. Even the most bling bling people will die if you really put them under a metal mountain of gold.
You might think smart people will better well balance than not the poison in their drug to keep their junky customer base just afloat so business have a perennial flow of serfs. But even smart people are humans and make errors. And even if they plan with error rate in mind, they can be overthrown by one of their many far more stupid rivals. The number of mindless wannabe will always largely exceeds the anticipation power of the sharpest minds.