Google has eliminated 35% of managers overseeing small teams in past year

I never really understood the concept of small teams. Managing a small team really does not provide the scale and benefit that a medium to large team does. Lost bandwidth of manager of said small team or extra salary of the same manager seem like something the company could use in other places.

But often such teams in faang come up as a by product of someone’s empire building and that is unfortunate for others involved in it.

The lead is also doing a lot of the regular dev work. Their work is small and self-contained enough that it doesn't need more headcount but also doesn't make sense to merge into another team.

I could even see there being a 1-person team, but their slow tooling and red tape creates the need for extra headcount.