Well they weren't necessarily bad. I think the Numenor (?) Kings of Westernesse (?), I dunno whatever the old Gondor kings were called, used them effectively. It was just Sauron that took over and made them dangerous. So, effective but dangerous in the wrong hand. Yeah, I guess, even that is pretty prophetic, heh.
It's another example of how the intentions of the good can be easily lead astray by the corruption power brings.
Using it as the name of a military contractor misses the point so hard I almost expect it to be intentional, but I suspect it's just teenage-boy level foolishness.
So did the Numenorian bros Palantir call each other up just to be like WHAAZZZUUPPPPPPPPP