It's always about power. Power comes before everything, including profit, which is why you see escalations against nations who'd very profitable to continue trading with and why critics of US foreign policy are attacked far more aggressively than critics of its domestic policy.
Manipulators understand that wealth control is a means to power and not an end in itself; that's why you see things like Zuckerberg hurting his own profit margins by making changes to Facebook which make the platform less fun to use but shore up establishment narrative control.
Power trumps profit every time. Manipulators are driven ultimately by the desire to control as many humans as possible to the greatest extent possible. Money is a useful tool for accomplishing that, but in a pinch they'll swap it out for military/police force or censorship etc.
Wealth is a narrative construct and can be gained or lost or made obsolete in a new narrative paradigm. Elite manipulators understand that it's hard, nonconceptual control over hard, nonconceptual objects that gives them their actual alpha status over the rest of the humans.
