Amazon survived just fine without being profitable for something like two decades.

I feel like we would all have been better off if Amazon had not been allowed to do this.

I absolutely agree.

Investors are willing to put a premium on growth, even if it means the company is unprofitable (for certain definitions of unprofitable — you have to be convincing that you could be profitable, if only you stopped spending so much on growth). If you're unprofitable and losing users you're in trouble.