> "Theft of trade secrets" is how Silicon Valley was built.
However something was "built" doesn't mean that those practices are ethical or should be continued, or be imitated by others trying to catch up to that thing.
For (an extreme) example, many countries were built on the massacre of indigenous peoples. Most of them have stopped doing that now.
Also possibly because it's a lot more difficult to cover these things up nowadays (but doesn't stop people trying; cf. Bolsonaro's attitude to indigenous people or denying flu vaccine to detained migrants on the US border.)
However something was "built" doesn't mean that those practices are ethical or should be continued, or be imitated by others trying to catch up to that thing.
For (an extreme) example, many countries were built on the massacre of indigenous peoples. Most of them have stopped doing that now.