This is quite clearly a Big Tech problem. Promotion is not dependent on the problem or its impact but the number of people willing to vouch for that problem/work. Sooner or later people realize that they can game the system.
I've seen that these cultures eventually converge to promoting "empire building" and less efficient but highly visible teams.
This article makes it sound like solving highly impactful problems is a needle in a haystack problem (which it sometimes is), but fails to recognize that this pattern works not because it helps you find an impactful problem, but because it helps you find a large enough set of people to vouch for this problem.
I've seen that these cultures eventually converge to promoting "empire building" and less efficient but highly visible teams.
This article makes it sound like solving highly impactful problems is a needle in a haystack problem (which it sometimes is), but fails to recognize that this pattern works not because it helps you find an impactful problem, but because it helps you find a large enough set of people to vouch for this problem.