I so far haven't heard an anecdote from somebody claiming "I experienced internal competition and it was sooo great!".

It's anecdotes from people having experienced anxiety, toxicity and overall bad work climate leading them to either quit or seriously consider it themselves or hearing it from their colleagues.

And it's other anecdotes saying "some companies have done quite well".

I personally have experienced it and I won't go back. And I have also personally experienced the opposite and now I'm having a blast without this nonsense.

But sure, let's just say "nobody has evidence, maybe it's great, maybe it's not".

Then you didn't read well. User tovej presented pretty good arguments about intrinsic vs extrinsic motivators, including a bunch of cited studies.

Your argument that Amazon does great does not provide evidence. Maybe they's do even better without this crap, or maybe the employees would be happier.

In other words: Many pre-civil-war cotton farms had great success in the market. That doesn't legitimize slavery though.

> nobody’s presented any evidence, just some anecdotes

As someone who has read histories and has been inside a courtroom, I’m curious what you mean by this.