It's different being the top-management vs working there. You can't generalize all of them as not having soul or is evil. Seriously. Unless you have been in their situation, you cant judge. Not everyone would get the freedom to work at their dream role/job/company.

Within the last year, I took a 20% pay cut to move to a company I felt more ethically comfortable with, and I still feel good about the decision.

It's not about one's dream role/job/company. It's about whether one is willing to tolerate something that makes one ethically uncomfortable for a number on a check... or not.

And although everyone's circumstances are different, I know far more people who work for shady companies and live in McMansions than ones who do it to support their family.

Judgy? Absolutely. But there are a lot of jobs out there: if you work at Comcast / US NSA / Chinese Bureau of Public Information and Network Security Supervision then it's because you don't have a problem with how they conduct business.

I don’t agree, it’s still worth reaching out to these people.

Granted as possible, I'd just offer the following points.

(1) These companies (as far as I know) tend to be technically and creatively conservative (in the sense that they don't like new ideas). (2) They have a captive market and effective monopolies. (3) The type of engineer likely to work at such a company values stability over risk. (4) There is C-level and down support for policies / products like the original article that generate profit. (5) It's a small enough industry (in terms of number of companies) that getting blackballed is feasible.

In that context, I don't foresee a logical person making an ethical decision (for leaking or sabotage) when it goes against his or her employer's wishes.