I've done some unpaid policy work. Defending democracy by advocating election integrity. No one is writing books about my mendacious activities.
FANG has a phalanx of former electeds and staffers paid to hustle their former colleagues. To defend their grift and dismantle civil society. Grist for an endless torrent of outrage porn.
While pendants will argue both me and FANG are "lobbying", petitioning our governments, our respective efforts hardly seem comparable.
>> Lobbying is simply the practice of petitioning the government to adopt a given policy.
Adopting a policy is different from having them mandate what people buy.
Hey, have people buy epipens and keep one at the school for each kid with allergies. Then later we will raise our prices 1000 percent. That's not influencing policy, its fucking people all the way to the bank - with government assistance.
That's a foundation of democracy, really: the right to petition the government. I think you might want to re-examine your view a bit.