The thing is, if these things resulted in increased profit over the medium term, they'd probably have happened already.

So yes there's user-hostile decisions made that put profit over users. Like ad tracking.

But there's other things that I think convince a user to purchase a product, and purchase the next product from the same company (loyalty maintained) that may not be in the user's best interests.

An example is a larger battery. My current theory is a manufacturer could easily have a 2 day battery and it wouldn't make for a terribly unwieldy phone.

But they don't, because customers are going to buy the phone next to it that is sleeker and weighs less.

I think customers are more often than not short sighted when making decisions like this. When they're in the store they think "but this one's so much nicer, and the battery probably lasts enough"

I think purchases are often made emotionally, not rationally, and a phone with 7 extra switches and more weight or thickness just seems clunky and less "high tech"