It blocks you from seeing the future. If they get money and no data, they're getting paid for who they are today with less insight into who they need to be tomorrow to keep getting paid.
The idea that data is "just sold to businesses" and can be substituted for its sale-value equivalent in cash is wrong, IMO. Serious insight, product directions, election swinging power, really big shit – are all emergent properties of data in aggregate like this that are somewhat unknowable until you actually get the data and see things unfold.
So what they're actually keeping, by choosing data over cash, is priceless long-term optionality.
The idea that data is "just sold to businesses" and can be substituted for its sale-value equivalent in cash is wrong, IMO. Serious insight, product directions, election swinging power, really big shit – are all emergent properties of data in aggregate like this that are somewhat unknowable until you actually get the data and see things unfold.
So what they're actually keeping, by choosing data over cash, is priceless long-term optionality.