For me this speaks to the arrogance and disconnect from reality that some people in tech operate under.
It seems they never considered it possible that someone would say no to them and would protect their IP against them, because who wouldn’t want to be part of their glorious mission, right?
Tech has a consent problem, no doubt. The popup which won't let you decline but instead asks you again and again forever is just the lowest manifestation of a deeper issue.
Eh, it's not just Tech, most company has a consent issue, and you could easily argue that capitalism as a consent issue (not saying that alternative also don't have one).
Rarely do businesses have any incentive to care about consent. In many case they actually have a vested interest in not caring about your consent, as it can remove one big barrier to profit. It is easier to illustrate these days with all the IA company harvesting data with 0 consent, it is true, but you find the same behavior in most industry. Consent is seen as a customer service issue, something extra, not something that is due.
In the end, it's business, it's purely about money. When you got untold billions in the bank account, or have someone backing you who has the billions, you can do whatever you want as long as it's not a violation of criminal codes. Hope that no one discovers what you did, and in the case they do and have the financial resources to fight back, drag the case along for as long as you can, and eventually settle for pennies.
As long as you don't commit crimes, this strategy will always work out. Hell even if you do commit crimes, as long as you have willing "fixers", you got to piss off a lot of powerful people to face justice. Just look at the 45th - that guy has a history of decades of stiffing contractors, lenders and employees (including those who actually went behind bars for him), but it took a pretty flimsy constructed case to finally charge him with a crime and I'm not certain that the case is clear enough for a conviction.
It seems they never considered it possible that someone would say no to them and would protect their IP against them, because who wouldn’t want to be part of their glorious mission, right?