sadly it's central to the silly con valley ploy, so don't expect change to come out from here. there's plenty company out there that value professionalism out of its workforce, but those aren't building cool toys for mid twenties bros.
I've spent the last 17 years working for (and now running) tech startups in Boston; the worst of them ceded all fun to cube farms, but the best of them never went all-in on the culture described here. Perhaps there is an east/west coast division here?
I look at the folks working alongside me now, building an incredibly sophisticated machine learning engine for cybersecurity, and I wouldn't think to draw upon a Lego metaphor for what they're doing. It's hard, substantive, mathematical work, and certainly not akin to playing with toys. I expect my senior engineers, sales guys, and marketers to be both protective of the brand we're building and understanding of the need to grow fast and expand our teams.
Of the tech companies that have tried to woo me, most fall into this infantilization trap and its such a big turn-off. If the reason I should come work with you is because you have a foosball table and on fridays you put a keg in the break room......I want to build things! I want to create. I will take your company and move it forward, I dont have time for ping pong.
Shouldnt the goal be to make your comoany rich, so you can be rewarded enough to buy the comforts YOU want, instead of lounging in the comforts of an employer as you work?
And there are plenty of people who eat that shit up. I know a lot of engineers are a bit socially retarded, but is it helping us to progress to accept this infantilization? Can we stop pretending to be "big kids"?