Saudi Arabia is keeping Uber alive. Without that $3.5 billion cash investment from last summer, Uber would be in serious financial trouble now. They wouldn't have been able to get the $2 billion loan that followed, and would have had to raise rates to stop the cash burn. That would have stopped their growth and cut their market share.
To assume there is a disconnect between a company and the investors that fund it is pretty naive. For starters, major investors almost always get board seats, which means they have a direct say in managing the company. Besides that, there are numerous articles that discuss how taking VC money has ruined many companies - Zenefits is the most popular recent example.
any investor or board member whonis aware of the type of activity mentioned by OP would shut it down fast. their first responsibility is to protect the company, especially one about to go public, and that doesn't happen when you're getting sued repeatedly for hostile work environment and/or sexual harassment.
VC's main goal is for their investments to grow and grow fast. They know most of their companies will fail, and they don't want to waste their time on the companies that will only net them a modest return when they can focus more of their efforts on the company that will net them a 20x return. It's actually in a VC's best interest for you to either be a rocket ship or for you to fail completely, as mathematically it's the best use of their time for maximizing profits.
VC's aren't trying for all of their portfolio companies to be profitable - they're trying to fund 1 company that is going to be uber profitable. There's a saying from the dot com investment days - you either invested in Google or you didn't.
