Being acquired by Amazon has nothing of "failed" in my book.

In the YC book it failed for sure. Startups are not "lifestyle business" in the YC definition.

It is not political nor failure.

It is corporate speak for we cashed out and the new owners bought us to strip us to parts so they can get what they want out of us (i.e: talent, patent/intellectual propety) while dominating the market and reducing (potential) competition.

It is a feature, not a bug for the shareholders.

Capitalism working as intended.

Did it really fail though?