Michael Dell took DELL private. He was able to raise the money to buyout DELL and was able to gain control of their plants, bank balances, etc. He could change how Dell operated and now he can choose to keep the profits within the company, distribute it to owners, or take all of it as his salary.

(note, I’m using Michael Dell as a stand in for whatever the buyout consortium was).

You can’t do anything like that with BTC.

But here’s the thing. Dividends exist. Many public companies pay dividends. The fact that Google does not pay a dividend is simply reflective of the fact that a majority of its owners (which is what shareholders are) believe that any additional earnings are best invested back into Google. (That’s the principle…in practice there are also tax disadvantages to dividends that make them further unattractive).

If a majority of owners didn’t believe that, they can make Google pay dividends.