Tech’s broken promises: Streaming is now just as expensive and confusing as cable. Ubers cost as much as taxis. And the cloud is no longer cheap::Some tech is getting pricier and looking a lot like the older services it was supposed to beat. From video streaming to ride-hailing and cloud computing.
You gave a good suggestion yourself - PasS and IaaS. Or if that is too specific let’s call it “computing platform provider”.
They sell you tools and services useful for making something else - not a new concept by any means, just a little (or lot) upgraded.
Technologies change, business models not so quickly. The biggest revolution is the massive adoption of subscription model for better or worse.
My (very subjective) perception is of “tech” as a boomer term for the “scary unknown crazy things I don’t understand”
Edit: one huge innovation that’s often forgotten is the product development cycle. With software it became possible to go from idea to market in a really short time. If anything separates “tech” companies form their predecessors it’s this.