For those who continue to say things like eBay's only reason for existing is profit / only loyalty is to their shareholders etc...

Profit and purpose are two different things, if one is neglected in favour of the other, it will at least inhibit genuine success if not outright deny it. A business, no matter what their size or resource pool is, can't trade on past success forever, either. 

eBay's purpose is to provide a service, from which they derive a profit. The quality of that service affects their profit. Maybe they'll thrive and be perfectly happy in a few years time with the way things are going, and if so, yay for them, but I'll believe it when I see it. 

If I approached my business with the atttitude of the only reason I'm doing this is to make as much money as possible, and I have little to no loyalty, obligation or responsibility to my customers above and beyond 'yo, here's the thing, you can have it I guess, at least, I haven't found any reason why you can't have it....yet', I doubt I would have lasted much beyond a couple of months.