Why bother with optics? Well, for one thing, presumably they still need to recruit people once in a while (including people with lots and lots of options).
Anyone who will work for facebook now doesn't care about optics.
They solve this problem with large wads of cash and FB stock. A couple of my friends there make close to a million dollars a year each in total comp just being middle managers. FB has no problem whatsoever with recruiting or retention of top talent.
IMO, the kind of people who work for and who would join Facebook are the ones who're self-selected to not care about morals or the ill effects of their work on billions of people. So optics doesn't come into the equation for Facebook to recruit people. Those who do care about optics would never even dream of working at Facebook.
You're exaggerating. What are those ill effects exactly?
Consult the N apologies Zuckerberg has issued on things like privacy for some examples.