has anyone cared about net income in decades? maybe it's about signaling to investors, "we have 100s of people working on [emergent technology]"
Uh, you mean net income also known as "net profit"? So your question is effectively "has anyone cared about profit in decades?"
Well... yes
It called the fully adjusted number “community adjusted Ebitda,” by which it subtracted not only interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, but also basic expenses like marketing, general and administrative, and development and design costs. Those earnings were $233 million, WeWork said.