> if you take rewards, bribery, force, domination and manipulation ...

That is a big "if". It works on the family level, but in the real world babbling is coupled with dominance, coercion, blackmail, exploitation etc.

It is easy to see in any average company that no one believes the babbler but is forced to listen to them and applaud.

though the shared disdain for the babbler creates a "common enemy" which is probably better than being forced to work directly

I think the main point of his principle is roughly correct. Classic companies are started by sociopaths and an initial amount of losers. Then the clueless come in the middle of the pyramid. The clueless section expands as the company grows until the company implodes.

I do not agree with his idea of promotion of overachievers into middle management and many other things. Some of his points are self-contradictory.

There are many variations on the main principle like Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/iron.html

(None of this applies applies to startups that are founded by actual programmers.)