So to answer what makes it a cut throat business. That is simple. Money. 

These big companies spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars on building mining sites. 
That consist of:
Large buildings, industrial fans and cooling setups, thousands of asics, internet to each machine, electrical cables for each machine and from the grid to the buildings, transformers outside of the building, technicians, maintainers, spare parts, 24/7 security, payroll staff, CPA’s, $200,000 a month electricity and a lot more. My point is that there is a lot of money flowing so they are looking out for number 1 because the reward is about $180,000/ 10 minutes. That is over a million dollars an hour if you average it out. People kill for less. A lot less.