Expecting growth along a single metric like dollars while staying product-offering static is a problem once most of the energy/production/scale optimizations have been implemented. It seems fine that we should expect innovation companies to grow, as in progress, to produce new product classes and improve old ones. I personally don't hope every company is destined to become primarily a stagnant service company.

Although I'm pretty sure the pressure to grow doesn't solely come from the outside-in perspective. It feels like internal politics, incentives, and the individuals desires to make their mark results in a shift in priorities in otherwise settled product lines as well.

At this point it feels right to switch from calling it growth, to neutrally 'drive'. Assuming some sense of drive not only is useful, but is an necessary feature of humans producing... then if priorities are not oriented directly towards maximizing usability or the quality of product for the end user, it will result in a product being reasonably propelled away from maintaining those. And so it seems to me, it is the priorities not the existence of drive or growth that is the issue to be focused on. I feel trying to establish a culture without drive would be net counter productive.