The problem is not that they built some product and monetized with ads. The problem is they injected themselves into a product they didn't build. Worse yet, they're open source projects.
If you can't see the distinction between this and the examples you mention, you really don't qualify to make sarcastic comments.
Exactly. And don't forget about the proliferation of the internet-of-shit devices, which are blasting everything they can learn about your home network to every company involved.
HN is specifically geared towards people who make a living coding things in the new "surveillance economy." This particular example (to go along with the dotnet command line issue) is just a difference in degree, not kind. They're mad that someone else is abusing their trust and privacy.
That is a narrow way to look at things and is not the full picture. Plenty of people protested and still protest Google's unethical business practices.
Brand power! I get totally nauseated every time tools/frameworks/programming languages get adopted just because they have the Google brand on it, when there are perfectly better alternatives.
Microsoft copied the model for operating systems. Token resistance from programmers.
Kite copies the model for programming tools. Too late, programmers.