I'm confused by this comment. They both went public two years ago so VCs have all cashed out.

People don't understand the difference between VC backed startups and public companies backed by institutional and retail investors

We're talking about public companies. You can safely use the term investors, the term "VC" is irrelevant, except for drama.

Now that we're talking about public companies, there are a lot of them. Any concern about price gouging you might have should extend to all these companies.

If not, why not?

Not sure if it's accurate, but the feeling is that recently, tech companies went public before being profitable or while barely being so. On top of that, their valuation is higher on a PE ratio basis than classical ones.

So it feels that they'll have to change something big to meet expected returns.

And the fear is that, as they succesfully managed to kill the incumbent, they are free to change the most obvious parameter, the pricing.

I've heard these arguments for years, depending on the company. How long do things have to go on, for people to stop believe that prices are going to massively rise?

I heard the same thing about amazon. That the inevitable huge price increases are coming. Hasn't happened yet.