Well I think this is a bit reductionistic. Every business is a business, but just about every business also won't cross certainly highly-profitable morally-dubious or long-term damaging paths.

A car company could maximize short-term profits by reducing quality. Reddit could sell your location data to the highest bidder. Apple could threaten to delete all your pictures unless you buy a super-pro account.

And generally companies don't do this, because the backlash. The backlash is good. Often the backlash is even good for the long-term health of the company/world.

I think to say that short-term-profit-oriented behavior from companies is inevitable isn't true, the backlash often wins, and long-term strategic thinking is actually the norm.