Here’s my steel man. Wall Street hates the entitlement that they perceive from soft coders. They don’t like companies not constantly putting downward pressure on costs, which is why those other companies do it. Notice how these benefit reductions get a lot of coverage? It sends a signal to Wall Street that the company can control costs.

And Zuck doesn’t care about the stock price from quarter to quarter, except that a low stock price will cause a Dead Sea effect of the best and brightest. That in turn will cause a talent spiral.

So they make symbolic cuts so Wall Street keeps the stock juiced so the RSU incentivized employees stay.