Ask HN: Where did the excellence in engineering go?

When I was teen in the 2010s I dreamed of working in Google or any other Big Tech, as they seemed to have the best engineering culture in the world atthe time. Nowadays, as a developer that still aspires to work in a place where people actually care about their deliveries, I'm trying to find positions in a better place, but where is this place? From my perspective, the FAANGs grew to be too corporative and are pushing out low quality products with AI labeled on it, most of startups I see out there are also trying to surf the AI hype. Where did the will power to create good and meaningful tech go?