It kind of is now (and I hate it).
If you don't sell, it's likely the large companies trying to buy you will copy you and use their piles of money to undercut you out of business (and if they don't, any VC backed startup can try).
So you either survive as small and unnoticed, or become big enough to be interesting (and then bought or killed unless you achieve absurd growth).
Tech is kind of a dark forest now (https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2021/02/heres-...).
I've worked for 2 companies that didn't sell and were obliterated this way.
