Excellent points.
Considering I have heard these "Deathbed Quotes" so many times with similar sounding refrain I am just inclined to ignore them.
And most people I know and see do drop work for family and friends ever so often as much their situation permits.
To be honest this loyalty thing seems to me was promoted by corporate management hucksters and now no loyalty phenomenon is getting promoted by alternate lifestyle peddlers. Most people I have seen at work and outside in all these years just work enough that bleak alternatives don't become reality.
Yeah, the usual corporate management stock basically stays in a place for a few years, do something (probably better if they just do nothing), then jump to another one.
There are two sorts, one eventually jumps to politics, and one stays in more modern software companies and eventually jumps to VC.
> And most people I know and see do drop work for family and friends ever so often as much their situation permits.
Your experiences today may well be the result of this idea becoming more and more pervasive over the past 30 or so years, and the resulting reduction in employee loyalty to their employers.