You should read back on some of the older threads here on HN where AMP is heralded as the best thing Google has done in a long time.

I have, but the comments I read were from the AMP lead, who I assume has fully drunk the Kool aid since they probably signed up for that job. I'm more curious about his/her team members. Google hires smart people. I assume they are free thinkers.

Edit: I'm pretty vocal in those old threads calling out AMP as a walled garden play, FWIW. I remember AOL's early days.

Smart people with mortgages at valley rates seem to get a lot less smart when they are looking at their own contributions.

Doesn't the valley work much like every other tech hub in the world, i.e. if you lose your job in the morning you can start a new job somewhere else sometime after lunch? Especially with a place like Google on your resumé.

That may be true, but the vast majority of people don't keep a stockpile of "fuck you" money in case of such situations. The path of least resistance is to lick boots and spend spend spend, not to be "insubordinate" or forego bad deals like rent-to-own from banks.

Upton Sinclair - "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"

I like Google, but they are really losing their way with things like AMP and Material Design (accessibility). People need to speak up or we won't have a truly open WWW much longer.