Why do VC push entrepreneurs into sellouts as an exit?

Well I think from a VC perspective, they're investing in your company to make a profit. They normally want to see that profit in 2-3 years... not 20 years later when you've built a great and lasting business.

While there is benefit from VC investment as many VC investors also have great expertise to share, I'm not a fan of VC money as it tends to cloud judgement and really does shift your strategy to a more materialistic and superficial one (usually). I personally would rather bootstrap and then get a bank loan.

In summary, building a company to last, will not achieve VC investors' short term goals or satisfy what some would consider 'greed'.

One needs to learn how VCs work to better understand their need for exits. VCs don't own the money they invest, they are basically money managers. They create funds by convincing investors (real owners of the money) to invest in their fund, and they promise them to produce great returns within 10 years. Therefore, when VCs invest in startups they want to see a clear exist strategy - usually within 3-5 years - in order to create the returns that they promised their actual investors.

If their portfolio startups do not exit, by the end of their fund (i.e. after 10 years), their investors will be angry, because they are not interested in owning shares in companies, they simply want to see healthy returns on liquid money. This will have severe impact on the VCs compensation for the whole fund management, and will probably prevent them from creating another fund in the future.