I mean I get that argument too. But is what I said wrong? Isn't stock being continually issued, diluting the value over time? If buybacks were _never_ done, wouldn't it keep getting diluted forever?

Edit: for instance, if Google has 200,000 employees and is granting an average of $50,000 stock per year, that is $10 billion. So id be okay with buybacks of that size.

The actual buybacks are much bigger if memory serves, so that seems like manipulation like you're saying