Sony should not be put in the same league as LG on software updates. Sony is actually quite good with software updates from what I can see.

I'm on my second LG phone first was LGV30 slim which lasted not quite 2 years and died a horrible death with not the first hint it was going to die. I am writing this on my replacement LG V60 Slim which i purchased from AT&T in September 2020. My wife and I were traveling to Wyoming for a month and a half and before this phone stopped charging from any wall source or using the cigar lighter. As of this moment it still don't charge. I had to purchase a wireless charger at a truck stop for
$45 and it does charge wireless. Its a OK phone but at close to $1000 and breaking within a month don't say much for LG quality cell phones. My wife tried tried to get AT&T to replace it but we were in the Yellowstone Park.  AT&T said to contact LG and we did but I think it all fell on deaf ears since no one got back with us. So here I am with a new phone I can't charge by any means other than wireless. What are the odds of buying a third LG? ☹️

This is a nightmare. I hope it isn't true but nothing I've seen in all these years has showed me otherwise. I'll probably upgrade from my G8x long before it sees Android 11.

Your conspiracy theory doesn't make much sense. Any workers, whatever role they occupy in whatever department, have professional contracts with their companies that puts them under legal obligation to perform well and never harm the company no matter what. The simple reason behind LG and Sony's weird approach to software updates, pricing etc is quite obvious : They don't really care because smartphones aren't their main domain of business. Both companies are more invested in the TV business with Sony having expanded their presence to include some additional fields like audio products, photography equipment and gaming consoles while LG is more focused on other consumer electronics. That's why they don't invest as much money in making "competitive" smartphones as they focus their resources on departments that are more beneficial to them, so I can see the smartphone department of LG and Sony just trying to make decent products and that'll be it for them because they don't even bother to do any marketing campaigns to sell those smartphones so whatever their sales number is, they seem to consider it like a nice bonus and that's it.

I continue to toy with the idea of planted/paid internal sabotage at the phone divisions of companies like LG and Sony.

unlike smaller, less-well-financed firms who often exceed them in design and in product support, these two actually have the resources on paper to be successful.

are they somehow ignoring the evolving markets they sell in? how do they succeed at failing so often?

my paranoia imagines a background subsidy from larger players, encouraging key LG/Sony figures to watch the developing phone market and keep their own products just slightly inferior/overpriced enough to make the big players look good.

how else to explain this continuing, seemingly-calibrated self:sabotage?