Yes, it is a cautionary lesson, just not the one people are taking it for; however, given the minimal documentation or transparency, there are a lot of better examples of short-term risk-heavy investments or blowing up (which are why Wall Street strictly segregates the risk-control departments from the trader and uses clawbacks etc) to tell, so the Zillow anecdote isn’t really worth telling in any context (except perhaps, like the other stories, as an example of low epistemic standards and how leprechauns are born).
Yes, it is a cautionary lesson, just not the one people are taking it for; however, given the minimal documentation or transparency, there are a lot of better examples of short-term risk-heavy investments or blowing up (which are why Wall Street strictly segregates the risk-control departments from the trader and uses clawbacks etc) to tell, so the Zillow anecdote isn’t really worth telling in any context (except perhaps, like the other stories, as an example of low epistemic standards and how leprechauns are born).