InfluxDB's recent trajectory has been marred by multiple backend rewrites, which have put its user base in a precarious position. The company's focus on innovation and technological advancements has overshadowed the fundamental task of maintaining and refining existing products with an actual user base. The frequent changes to query languages, interfaces, and operational protocols have caused developers to lose trust in InfluxDB as a product. This design instability has also led to issues with reliability, stability, and performance, making it difficult for users to adopt new solutions. Additionally, the company's oscillating between roles and projects has discharged cognitive load onto developers, who now navigate multiple versions and features of InfluxDB. The lack of focus on simplicity and user needs has allowed other, more focused solutions like Prometheus and Grafana to emerge and dominate the metrics and monitoring space. Despite some areas where InfluxDB excels, such as IoT workloads, the company's overall trajectory is a cautionary tale for database companies about the importance of listening to users and learning from past experiences.