Maybe you are looking everywhere but the wrong places. There's never been a better time to work in software if you care about FOSS, accessibility, companies with purpose other than profit etc. If you surround yourself with money oriented peers, of course that's all you'll see.

> There's never been a better time to work in software

I would be thrilled to have my despair over the state of the industry lifted a bit. Where do I find outfits like that?

> If you surround yourself with money oriented peers, of course that's all you'll see.

I actually don't surround myself with such peers at all. But regardless, it's impossible not to notice what's going on in the big picture.

So just work at a B2B company rather than a B2C company?

I've only worked at B2B companies my entire career and I've literally never once seen anyone "engaging in practices that abuse others for profit."

With the exception of two companies I started myself, my whole career has been B2B companies, and there are many good ones (almost exclusively companies which use software, but aren't software companies).

But pure software companies? Even B2B ones are increasingly abusive -- they just tend to abuse their employees rather than customers.

Note that I'm certainly not saying that all companies are like this. But the trendline for it is clear to me: it's getting more common as time goes on. That's why I would avoid this industry if I were at the start of my career. I think things are going to get much worse before they get better.