Huge profits mean a lot of value is being captured. That can be because of a large amount of value being created, which is successful capitalism, but it can also mean a lot of rent is being extracted from an existing value stream.
Not saying this is the later case, but when people are critical of large profits they usually are critical of the later, where they believe that the value being created has not really gone up, it’s just being funneled away to rent seekers now.
This is especially true for things that are seen as “essentials” where buying is fairly mandatory and so prices are inelastic, like housing, food and medical care. If these markets become uncompetitive consumers can’t just walk away from rising prices.
So rising profits + the same value being generated point to the market being uncompetitive and are not celebrated in the way rising profits + new value are.
Not saying this is the later case, but when people are critical of large profits they usually are critical of the later, where they believe that the value being created has not really gone up, it’s just being funneled away to rent seekers now.
This is especially true for things that are seen as “essentials” where buying is fairly mandatory and so prices are inelastic, like housing, food and medical care. If these markets become uncompetitive consumers can’t just walk away from rising prices.
So rising profits + the same value being generated point to the market being uncompetitive and are not celebrated in the way rising profits + new value are.