You are grossly underestimating the loss of agency. You wouldn't be busting ass on a project of your own invention, towards your own goals, as a key member of a team dedicated to something miraculous. You'd be a replaceable cog doing a tiny thing as part of a big system that doesn't give the first fuck about you. Amazon doesn't expect you "to be better" than you are. They expect you to surrender your life to their goals. As far as "being part of something that does something" you aren't serious, are you? The only non anti-competitive innovations Amazon has ever come up with are a talking bluetooth speaker and a phone that sold worse than the Zune. Even the Kindle is a shitshow and I own 3; if it weren't for Amazon's anti-trust-worthy ecosystem that thing would be a bigger joke than the Nook.